Cornell Bowers College of Computing and Information Science
photo of Dexter Kozen

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CS Professor Dexter Kozen Recipient of 2016 European Association for Theoretical Computer Science Award

CS Professor Dexter Kozen is the 2016 recipient of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science Award. The EATCS Award is given to acknowledge extensive contributions to theoretical computer science over a lifelong scientific career.

The committee has acknowledged Kozen as "the" theoretical computer scientist with significant contributions to the field, including "the most succint and beautiful proof imaginable of completeness for PDL, a stunning treatment of the far more challenging mu-calculus and the elegant treatment of logics of programs in the setting of Kleene algebra." One of the Kozen's first contributions to the scientific community was the definition of the notion of alternating Turing machine, a complexity theory that made it possible to connect time and space complexity. "The results were viewed as so significant that they were made part of the graduate curriculum in complexity theory," said the awarding committee.

Besides complexity theory and modal logic, Kozen has produced major research results on the theory of real closed algebraid theories and on computer algebra, such as the Kozen-Landau theorem. He is also a pioneer in probabilistic semantics, working on measure-theoretic semantics from probalistic programs.

"Dexter is a rockstar in so many ways," said CIS Dean Greg Morrisett. "This award acknowledges his fundamental contributions to theoretical computer science, which he so richly deserves. We are very fortunate to have him!"

The EATSC Award will be presented at ICALP 2016, which will take place in Rome, Italy in July.