Andrew Wilson Appel (born 1960) is the Eugene Higgins Professor of
computer science
Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...
at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
. He is especially well-known because of his
compiler
In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that ...
books, the ''Modern Compiler Implementation in ML'' () series, as well as ''Compiling With Continuations'' (). He is also a major contributor to the
Standard ML of New Jersey
Standard ML of New Jersey (SML/NJ; Standard Meta-Language of New Jersey) is a free and open-source compiler and programming environment for the Standard ML programming language. Aside from its runtime system, which is written in C, SML/NJ is wr ...
compiler, along with
David MacQueen
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
,
John H. Reppy,
Matthias Blume and others and one of the authors of ''
Rog-O-Matic Rog-O-Matic is a bot developed in 1981 to play and win the video game ''Rogue'', by four graduate students in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh: Andrew Appel, Leonard Hamey, Guy Jacobson and Michael Loren ...
''.
Biography
Andrew Appel is the son of mathematician
Kenneth Appel
Kenneth Ira Appel (October 8, 1932 – April 19, 2013) was an American mathematician who in 1976, with colleague Wolfgang Haken at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, solved one of the most famous problems in mathematics, the four-c ...
, who proved the
Four-Color Theorem
In mathematics, the four color theorem, or the four color map theorem, states that no more than four colors are required to color the regions of any map so that no two adjacent regions have the same color. ''Adjacent'' means that two regions sha ...
in 1976. Appel graduated summa cum laude with an A.B. in
physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
from
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial Colleges, fourth-oldest ins ...
in 1981 after completing a senior thesis, titled "Investigation of galaxy clustering using an asymptotically fast N-body algorithm", under the supervision of Nobel laureate
James Peebles. He later received a Ph.D. (computer science) at
Carnegie-Mellon University
Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...
, in 1985. He became an
ACM Fellow
ACM or A.C.M. may refer to:
Aviation
* AGM-129 ACM, 1990–2012 USAF cruise missile
* Air chief marshal
* Air combat manoeuvring or dogfighting
* Air cycle machine
* Arica Airport (Colombia) (IATA: ACM), in Arica, Amazonas, Colombia
Computing
...
in 1998, due to his research of programming languages and
compiler
In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs that ...
s.
In 1981, Appel developed a better approach to the
n-body problem
In physics, the -body problem is the problem of predicting the individual motions of a group of celestial objects interacting with each other gravitationally.Leimanis and Minorsky: Our interest is with Leimanis, who first discusses some histor ...
in
linearithmic
In computer science, the time complexity is the computational complexity that describes the amount of computer time it takes to run an algorithm. Time complexity is commonly estimated by counting the number of elementary operations performed by ...
instead of quadratic time.
From July 2005 to July 2006, he was a visiting researcher at the ''
'' (INRIA),
Rocquencourt,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, on sabbatical from Princeton University.
Andrew Appel campaigns on issues related to the interaction of law and computer technology. He testified in the penalty phase of the
Microsoft antitrust case in 2002. He is opposed to the introduction of some computerized
voting machine
A voting machine is a machine used to record votes in an election without paper. The first voting machines were mechanical but it is increasingly more common to use ''electronic voting machines''. Traditionally, a voting machine has been defin ...
s, which he deemed untrustworthy.
In 2007, he received attention when he purchased a number of voting machines for the purpose of investigating their security.
References
External links
Website at Princeton
1960 births
Living people
American computer scientists
Carnegie Mellon University alumni
Princeton University faculty
Programming language researchers
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