Peter Chen
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Dr. Peter Pin-Shan Chen is the originator of the Entity-Relationship Model (ER Model). The ER Model serves as the foundation of many systems analysis and design methodologies, computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools, and repository systems. The ER Model is the basis for IBM's Repository Manager/MVS and DEC's CDD/Plus. A graduate of National Taiwan University (B.S. in electrical engineering, 1968) and Harvard University (Ph.D. in computer science/applied mathematics, 1973), Dr. Peter Chen has held the position of M. J. Foster Distinguished Chair Professor of Computer Science at Louisiana State University since 1983. The terms of "Entity-Relationship Model (ER Model)," "Entity-Relationship Diagram (ER Diagram)," and "Peter Chen" have become commonly used in online dictionaries, books, articles, web pages, course syllabi, and commercial product brochures.
Dr. Peter Chen's original paper, titled "The Entity Relationship Model - Toward A Unified View of Data" [1] is one of the most cited papers in the computer software field. [2] Recently, Dr. Chen was honored by the selection of his original ER model paper as one of the 38 most influential papers in Computer Science according to a survey of 1,000 computer science college professors. In 1998 he was inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.
Dr. Chen’s work is a cornerstone of software engineering, in particular Computer-Aided Software Engineering (CASE). In the late 80’s and early 90’s, IBM’s Application Development Cycle (AD/Cycle) framework and DB2 repository (RM/MVS) were based on the ER model. Other vendors’ repository systems such as Digital’s CDD+ were also based on the ER model. Dr. Chen has made significant impact on the CASE industry by his research work and by his lecturing around the world on structured system development methodologies. Most of the major CASE tools including Computer Associates’ ERWIN, Oracle Corporation’s Designer/2000, and Sybase’s PowerDesigner (and even a general drawing tool like Microsoft Visio) are influenced by the ER model, as well as the IDEF1X standard.
The ER model also serves as the foundation of some of the recent work on Object-oriented analysis and design methodologies and Semantic Web. The UML modeling language has its roots in the ER model.
