Arto Salomaa

Arto Salomaa (born 6 June 1934) is a Finnish mathematician and computer scientist. His research career, which spans over forty years, is focused on formal languages and automata theory. A 2004 citation stated that "Arto is without doubt the founder of automata and formal language theory in Europe".[1]

Contents

Early life and education

Salomaa was born in Turku, Finland on June 6, 1934. He earned a Bachelor's degree from University of Turku in 1954 and a PhD from the same university in 1960. Salomaa's father was a professor of philosophy at the University of Turku.[2] Salomaa was introduced to the theory of automata and formal languages during seminars at Berkeley given by John Myhill in 1957.[3]

Career

In 1965, Salomaa became a professor of mathematics at the University of Turku, a position he still holds. He also spent two years in the late 1960s at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, Canada, and two years in the 1970s at the University of Aarhus in Aarhus, Denmark.[2] [4]

Salomaa was president of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science from 1979 until 1985.

Publications

Salomaa has authored or co-authored 46 textbooks, including "Theory of Automata" (1969), "Formal Languages" (1973), "The Mathematical Theory of L-Systems" (1980, with Grzegorz Rozenberg), "Jewels of Formal Language Theory" (1981) "Public-Key Cryptography" (1990) and "DNA Computing" (1998, with Grzegorz Rozenberg and Gheorghe Paun). With Rozenberg, Salomaa edited "Handbook of Formal Languages" (1997), a 3-volume, 2000-page reference on formal language theory. These books have often become standard references in their respective areas. For example, "Formal Languages" was reported in 1991 to be among the 100 most cited texts in mathematics.[2]

Salomaa has also published over 400 articles in scientific journals. These publications include an article entitled "What computer scientists should know about sauna" .[5]

Awards and recognition

Salomaa has been awarded the title of Academician by the Academy of Finland,[6] one of twelve living Finnish individuals awarded the title. He also received the EATCS Award in 2004.[1] Salomaa has received seven honorary degrees.[1]

Personal life

Dr Salomaa married in 1959. He has two children, Kirsti and Kai.

References

  1. ^ a b c Jan van Leeuwen, The distinguished achievement award: EATCS Award 2004, [[Bulletin of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science]], 84 (2004), 10–11.
  2. ^ a b c Karhumäki, J. A Short Biography of Arto Salomaa, Information and Computation, 151 (1991), 2–4.
  3. ^ A. Salomaa, Myhill, Turku and Sauna Poetry: Recollections arising from the EATCS Award, Bulletin of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science, 84 (2004), 12–15.
  4. ^ A. Salomaa, Events and Languages, in People and Ideas in Theoretical Computer Science, C. S. Calude (ed.), pp. 253–273, Springer, 1999.
  5. ^ A. Salomaa, What computer scientists should know about sauna. Bulletin of the European Association of Theoretical Computer Science, 15 (1981) 8–21.
  6. ^ Academy of Finland, Academicians.

External links

EATCS Award laureates

Karp (2000) · Böhm (2001) · Nivat (2002) · Rozenberg (2003) · Salomaa (2004) · Milner (2005) · Paterson (2006) · Scott (2007) · Valiant (2008) · Huet (2009) · Mehlhorn (2010) · Trakhtenbrot (2011)