Henry Gordon Rice (July 18, 1920 – April 14, 2003) was an American logician and mathematician best known as the author of
Rice's theorem
In computability theory, Rice's theorem states that all non-trivial semantic properties of programs are undecidable. A semantic property is one about the program's behavior (for instance, does the program terminate for all inputs), unlike a synta ...
, which he proved in his doctoral dissertation of 1951 at
Syracuse University
Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...
with thesis advisor
Paul C. Rosenbloom.
Rice was also a Professor of Mathematics at the
University of New Hampshire
The University of New Hampshire (UNH) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Durham, New Hampshire. It was founded and incorporated in 1866 as a land grant college in Hanover in connection with Dartmouth College, mo ...
. After 1960 he was employed by
Computer Sciences Corporation
Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) was an American multinational corporation that provided information technology (IT) services and professional services. On April 3, 2017, it merged with the Enterprise Services line of business of HP Ente ...
in
El Segundo.
Rice died on April 14, 2003, in
Davis, California
Davis is the most populous city in Yolo County, California. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 66,850 in 2020, not including the on-campus population of the University of California, Da ...
.
References
External links
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1920 births
2003 deaths
Syracuse University alumni
20th-century American mathematicians
21st-century American mathematicians
American logicians
Mathematicians from New York (state)
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