Tommaso Toffoli () is an Italian-American professor of electrical and computer engineering at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with its original campu ...

where he joined the faculty in 1995. He has worked on

cellular automata A cellular automaton (pl. cellular automata, abbrev. CA) is a discrete model of computation studied in automata theory. Cellular automata are also called cellular spaces, tessellation automata, homogeneous structures, cellular structures, tessel ...

and the theory of

artificial life Artificial life (often abbreviated ALife or A-Life) is a field of study wherein researchers examine systems related to natural life, its processes, and its evolution, through the use of simulations with computer models, robotics, and biochemistry ...

(with

Edward Fredkin Edward Fredkin (born October 2, 1934) is a distinguished career professor at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), and an early pioneer of digital physics. Fredkin's primary contributions include work on reversible computing and cellular automata. ...

and others), and is known for the invention of the

Toffoli gate In logic circuits, the Toffoli gate (also CCNOT gate), invented by Tommaso Toffoli, is a universal reversible logic gate, which means that any classical reversible circuit can be constructed from Toffoli gates. It is also known as the "controlle ...

Early life and career

He was born in June, 1943 in

Montereale Valcellina Montereale Valcellina ( fur, Montreâl) is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the northeast Italian region Friuli-Venezia Giulia. The comune is located about northwest of Trieste and about north of Pordenone. The comune was formerly part of the P ...

, in northeastern

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

, to Francesco and Valentina (Saveri) Toffoli and was raised in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

. He received his

laurea In Italy, the ''laurea'' is the main post-secondary academic degree. The name originally referred literally to the laurel wreath, since ancient times a sign of honor and now worn by Italian students right after their official graduation ceremony ...

in physics (equivalent to a Master's degree) from the

University of Rome La Sapienza The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a public research university located in Rome, Ita ...

in 1967. Toffoli moved to the United States in 1969. In 1976 he received a Ph.D. in computer and communication science from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

, then in 1978 he joined the faculty of

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

as a principal research scientist, where he remained until 1995, when he joined the faculty of Boston University.

Books

* ''Cellular Automata Machines: A New Environment for Modeling'', MIT Press (1987), with

Norman Margolus Norman H. Margolus (born 1955) is a Canadian-American physicist and computer scientist, known for his work on cellular automata and reversible computing.. He is a research affiliate with the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laborator ...

. .

References

External links

Homepage

Google Scholar profile
1943 births Italian electrical engineers Italian emigrants to the United States Living people Cellular automatists University of Michigan alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Boston University faculty Sapienza University of Rome alumni New England Complex Systems Institute Quantum information scientists American electrical engineers Computer engineers {{Italy-engineer-stub People from Friuli-Venezia Giulia

Early life and career

Books

See also

References

External links