Emma Haruka Iwao

Emma Haruka Iwao
岩尾エマはるか
Born (1984-04-21) April 21, 1984[1]
Kaizuka, Osaka, Japan[2]
Alma materUniversity of Tsukuba
Scientific career
FieldsComputer science
WorkplacesGoogle
Panasonic
GREE
Red Hat[3]
Websiteblog.yuryu.jp

Emma Haruka Iwao (born April 21, 1984) is a Japanese computer scientist and cloud developer advocate at Google.[4][5] In 2019 Haruka Iwao calculated the then world record for most accurate value of pi (π); which included 31.4 trillion digits, exceeding the previous record of 22 trillion.[6][7][8][9][10] This record was surpassed in 2020 by Timothy Mullican who calculated 50 trillion digits,[11][12] but she reclaimed the record in 2022 with 100 trillion digits.[13] The record was surpassed by a computer storage company in 2024, reaching roughly 105 trillion digits.[14] She identifies as queer.[15]

Early life and education

As a child, Iwao became interested in pi, learning of the record-breaking computations of her Japanese compatriots Daisuke Takahashi and Yasumasa Kanada.[6][16] She studied computer science at the University of Tsukuba, where she was taught by Takahashi.[5][4] She was awarded the Dean's Award for Excellence in 2008, before starting graduate studies in computing. Her master's thesis considered high performance computer systems.[5] After graduating, Iwao took on several software engineering positions, working on site reliability for Panasonic, GREE and Red Hat.[4]

Career

Iwao joined Google as a Cloud Developer Advocate in 2015.[6] She originally worked for Google in Tokyo, before moving to Seattle in 2019.[3] Iwao offers training in the use of the Google Cloud Platform (GCP), as well as supporting application developers.[17][18][19] She works to make cloud computing accessible for everyone, creating online demos and teaching materials.[20]

In March 2019 Iwao calculated the value of pi to 31,415,926,535,897 digits (equal to ⌊π × 1013⌋), using 170 terabytes (TB) of data.[6][21][22][23] The calculation used a multithreaded program called y-cruncher using over 25 machines for 121 days.[6][24][20] This was the first time the record had been set using a cloud computing service, and was achieved at a cost of roughly US$200,000.[25]

In March 2022 she extended the world record to 100 trillion digits of pi.[13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Iwao, Emma Haruka [@Yuryu] (2022-04-21). "I turn 38 today! 12-year-old me would assume adults know everything but I know I was wrong! I'm trying something new this year that I haven't done in a while, so I'm really excited about that. I've made a lot of progress with my Mandarin so I'm happy with that, too" (Tweet). Retrieved 2024-04-09 – via Twitter.
  2. ↑ "1人の女性がエンジニアになるまで 〜yuryuの場合〜". note（ノート） (in Japanese). 2021-02-02. Retrieved 2024-04-09.
  3. 1 2 Iwao, Emma Haruka (2019). "Emma Haruka Iwao: Developer Advocate for Google Cloud Platform". linkedin.com. LinkedIn.
  4. 1 2 3 "Google Developer Day". google.cn. Archived from the original on 2019-03-04. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
  5. 1 2 3 Neagle, Mia (2019-03-14). "A recipe for beating the record of most-calculated digits of pi". blog.google. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Kleinman, Zoe (2019-03-14). "Woman smashes pi world record". bbc.com. BBC. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
  7. ↑ Emma Haruka Iwao on X
  8. ↑ Anon (2019). "Beating the record of most-calculated digits of pi". youtube.com. YouTube.
  9. ↑ Brodeur, Nicloe (2019). "Woman sets world record in Seattle for calculating the value of pi to 31.4 trillion decimal places". seattletimes.com. Seattle Times.
  10. ↑ Shaban, Hamza (2019-03-14). "A Google employee just shattered the record for Pi calculations. Her name is Emma Haruka Iwao". Washington Post. Retrieved 2024-11-15.
  11. ↑ "The Pi Record Returns to the Personal Computer". Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  12. ↑ "Calculating Pi: My attempt at breaking the Pi World Record". 26 June 2019. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  13. 1 2 Iwao, Emma Haruka. "Calculating 100 trillion digits of pi on Google Cloud". Google Cloud Blog. Retrieved 2022-06-15.
  14. ↑ Baker, Harry (2024-03-15). "Pi calculated to 105 trillion digits, smashing world record". Live Science. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  15. ↑ Braidwood, Ella (18 March 2019). "Queer Google's queer female pi world record breaker hopes to inspire LGBT community". PinkNews.
  16. ↑ Francesca Paris (14 March 2019). "The Woman Who Calculated 31 Trillion Digits Of Pi". NPR. Archived from the original on 14 March 2019. Retrieved 11 December 2025.
  17. ↑ mad\djchilsx (2017-11-10). "Hands-on | Intel® HPC Developer Conference". software.intel.com. Intel. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
  18. ↑ Anon (2019). "Emma Haruka Iwao". lesbianswhotech.org. Lesbians Who Tech. Archived from the original on 2019-03-30. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
  19. ↑ Brito, Christopher (2019). "This Google employee just smashed the world record for calculating pi". CBS News. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
  20. 1 2 Kelly, Heather (2019). "A Google employee just broke the world record for calculating pi". cnn.com. CNN. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
  21. ↑ Herbert, Tom (2019-03-14). "A Google employee has smashed the Pi world record... on Pi Day". standard.co.uk. London: Evening Standard. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
  22. ↑ Anon (2019). "Most accurate value of pi". guinnessworldrecords.com. Guinness World Records. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
  23. ↑ Shaban, Hamza (2019). "Pi Day news: Google employee breaks record, calculates 31.4 trillion digits of Pi". chicagotribune.com. Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
  24. ↑ Yee, Alexander J. (2019). "y-cruncher - A Multi-Threaded Pi Program". numberworld.org. Retrieved 2019-03-14.
  25. ↑ Emma Haruka Iwao; Alexander Yee (13 April 2019). CMP300: How We Broke the World Record for Computing Digits of Pi (31.4 trillion!). 7:33 minutes in. Retrieved 11 December 2025.
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