Kai T. Salomaa is a
Finnish Canadian
Finnish Canadians are Canadian citizens of Finnish ancestry or Finns who emigrated to and reside in Canada. In 2016, 143,645 Canadians claimed Finnish ancestry. Finns started coming to Canada in the early 1880s, and in much larger numbers in the e ...
theoretical computer scientist
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 circumscribe the th ...
, known for his numerous contributions to the
state complexity State complexity is an area of theoretical computer science
dealing with the size of abstract automata,
such as different kinds of finite automata.
The classical result in the area is that
simulating an n-state
nondeterministic finite automaton
by ...
of
finite automata
A finite-state machine (FSM) or finite-state automaton (FSA, plural: ''automata''), finite automaton, or simply a state machine, is a mathematical model of computation. It is an abstract machine that can be in exactly one of a finite number o ...
.
His highly cited 1994 joint paper with
Yu and Zhuang
laid the foundations of the area.
He has published over 100 papers in scientific journals on various subjects in
formal language theory
In logic, mathematics, computer science, and linguistics, a formal language consists of words whose letters are taken from an alphabet and are well-formed according to a specific set of rules.
The alphabet of a formal language consists of symb ...
. Salomaa is a full professor at
Queen's University (
Kingston, Ontario
Kingston is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located on the north-eastern end of Lake Ontario, at the beginning of the St. Lawrence River and at the mouth of the Cataraqui River (south end of the Rideau Canal). The city is midway between To ...
).
Biography
Salomaa did his undergraduate studies at the
University of Turku
sv, Åbo universitet
, latin_name = Universitas Aboensis
, image_name = University of Turku.svg
, motto = ''Vapaan kansan lahja vapaalle tieteelle''
, established = 1920
, type ...
, where he has earned his Ph.D. degree in 1989; his dissertation was jointly supervised by
Ronald V. Book and Magnus Steinby. In the 1990s, Salomaa worked at the
University of Western Ontario
The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames R ...
. Since 1999, he holds a professor position at
Queen's University. His father,
Arto Salomaa
Arto K. Salomaa (born 6 June 1934) is a Finnish mathematician and computer scientist. His research career, which spans over forty years, is focused on formal languages and automata theory.
Early life and education
Salomaa was born in Turku, Finl ...
, is also a distinguished computer scientist with numerous contributions to the fields of
automata theory
Automata theory is the study of abstract machines and automata, as well as the computational problems that can be solved using them. It is a theory in theoretical computer science. The word ''automata'' comes from the Greek word αὐτόματο ...
and
formal languages
In logic, mathematics, computer science, and linguistics, a formal language consists of words whose letters are taken from an alphabet and are well-formed according to a specific set of rules.
The alphabet of a formal language consists of sy ...
.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Salomaa, Kai
Canadian computer scientists
Finnish computer scientists
Academic staff of Queen's University at Kingston
University of Turku alumni
People from Turku
Living people
Finnish expatriates in Canada
Year of birth missing (living people)