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TUCS Distinguished Lecture
Friday, January 23, 2015 at 13.15
ICT Building, Auditorium Lambda
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Arto Salomaa, University of Turku and Turku Centre for Computer Science, Finland: "A Personal Voyage Through the Last Half a Century of Science"
Host: Juhani Karhumäki, University of Turku
This event in the TUCS Distinguished Lecture Series is presenting one of the most influential computer scientists in the world, Academician Arto Salomaa, whose research inspired and guided some of the most significant developments in foundations of computer science. He will be interviewed by Prof. Juhani Karhumäki – the interview will cover a broad range of topics concerning research in computer science during the last half century.
Biography: Arto Salomaa received his Ph.D. from Turku University in 1960 and became a professor here in 1966, holding this position until his retirement in 1999. During these years he frequently spent periods of time as a visiting professor at prestigious universities across the globe. He also served three 5-year terms as an academy professor of the Academy of Finland. His personal and academic roots in Turku are very important to him – he is proud of being a fluent speaker of the local Turku language "Turun murre".
For half a century his research and writings inspired and guided some of the most significant developments in foundations of computer science. He is one of the founders of, and a towering figure in, formal languages and automata theory.
As a researcher, Salomaa is famous for being prolific, deep, and broad, and for pioneering many important research directions. His scientific work contains more than 500 publications including 13 books translated into at least 7 languages. His writings have had enormous influence on the development of theoretical computer science. Well-known examples are his famous "Formal Languages" book declared a classic by the Association for Computing Machinery and the 3-volume masterpiece "Handbook of Formal Languages".
His retirement in 1999 was in name only: his research is flourishing and he is pursuing both classic and novel research directions.
He has supervised 25 doctoral students, many of whom became well-recognized scientists in their own right and who are located at reputable institutions around the world.
Salomaa’s enormous achievements are well recognized by the scientific community in both Finland and abroad. He is one of the most decorated computer scientists - among others, he holds 9 doctorates honoris causa. Also, in 2001 he received Finland's highest scientific honor when he was appointed an Academician - only 12 scientists may hold this title at any moment of time.
The TUCS Distinguished Lecture Series is a forum for public lectures by outstanding national and international researchers in all aspects of computing, coming both from academia and industry. All lectures are free and open to the public.
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