Carl Herbert Smith

Carl Herbert Smith (1950–2004) was an American

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...

. He was a pioneer in

computational complexity theory In theoretical computer science and mathematics, computational complexity theory focuses on classifying computational problems according to their resource usage, and relating these classes to each other. A computational problem is a task solved by ...

and

computational learning theory In computer science, computational learning theory (or just learning theory) is a subfield of artificial intelligence devoted to studying the design and analysis of machine learning algorithms. Overview Theoretical results in machine learning m ...

. Smith was program manager of the

National Science Foundation The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...

theoretical computer science Theoretical computer science (TCS) is a subset of general computer science and mathematics that focuses on mathematical aspects of computer science such as the theory of computation, lambda calculus, and type theory. It is difficult to circumsc ...

program, and editor of the '' International Journal of the Foundations of Computer Science'', ''

Theoretical Computer Science Theoretical computer science (TCS) is a subset of general computer science and mathematics that focuses on mathematical aspects of computer science such as the theory of computation, lambda calculus, and type theory. It is difficult to circumsc ...

'', and ''

Fundamenta Informaticae ''Fundamenta Informaticae'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering computer science. The editor-in-chief is Damian Niwiński. It was established in 1977 by the Polish Mathematical Society as Series IV of the '' Annales Societatis Mathemati ...

''. He held professorships at

Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and money ...

and the

University of Maryland, College Park The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the University System of Mary ...

. He organized the first conferences on computational learning in the U.S. in the 1980s. He earned a PhD from the State University at Buffalo in 1979, and received

Habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

degree from the

University of Latvia University of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Universitāte, shortened ''LU'') is a state-run university located in Riga, Latvia established in 1919. The ''QS World University Rankings'' places the university between 801st and 1000th globally, seventh ...

in 1993. He was a member of the

Latvian Academy of Sciences The Latvian Academy of Sciences ( lv, Latvijas Zinātņu akadēmija) is the official Academy of Sciences, science academy of Latvia and is an association of the country's foremost scientists. The academy was founded as the ''Latvian SSR Academy o ...

. He was the author of the popular textbooks '' Theory of Computation: A Gentle Introduction'' and '' A Recursive Introduction to the Theory of Computation''. American computer scientists 1950 births 2004 deaths University of Latvia alumni University at Buffalo alumni {{US-compu-bio-stub