Richard Statman (born September 6, 1946) is an American
computer scientist whose principal research interest is the
theory of computation
In theoretical computer science and mathematics, the theory of computation is the branch that deals with what problems can be solved on a model of computation, using an algorithm, how algorithmic efficiency, efficiently they can be solved or t ...
, especially symbolic computation. His research involves
lambda calculus,
type theory
In mathematics, logic, and computer science, a type theory is the formal presentation of a specific type system, and in general type theory is the academic study of type systems. Some type theories serve as alternatives to set theory as a fou ...
, and
combinatory algebra
Combinatory logic is a notation to eliminate the need for quantified variables in mathematical logic. It was introduced by Moses Schönfinkel and Haskell Curry, and has more recently been used in computer science as a theoretical model of comput ...
.
Career
In 1974, Statman received his
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
from
Stanford University for his Ph.D. dissertation, supervised by
Georg Kreisel
Georg Kreisel FRS (September 15, 1923 – March 1, 2015) was an Austrian-born mathematical logician who studied and worked in the United Kingdom and America.
Biography
Kreisel was born in Graz and came from a Jewish background; his family ...
, entitled ''Structural Complexity of Proofs''. His achievements include the proof that the
type inhabitation problem in
simply typed lambda calculus
The simply typed lambda calculus (\lambda^\to), a form
of type theory, is a typed interpretation of the lambda calculus with only one type constructor (\to) that builds function types. It is the canonical and simplest example of a typed lambda c ...
is
PSPACE-complete In computational complexity theory, a decision problem is PSPACE-complete if it can be solved using an amount of memory that is polynomial in the input length (polynomial space) and if every other problem that can be solved in polynomial space can b ...
.
External links
Carnegie Mellon profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Statman, Richard
American computer scientists
Living people
1946 births