Tércio Pacitti (September 9, 1928 in Atibaia - June 18, 2014 in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

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Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

was an

electronic engineer Electronics engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering which emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and control electric current ...

and computer scientist in

Biography

Pacitti was born in Atibaia-SP, Brazil, son of Antônio Pacitti and Isabel de Moraes Pacitti. He graduated as aeronautical engineer from ITA, first in the class of 1952, having completed a Masters (1961) and Ph.D. (1971) at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. He was a student of

David A. Huffman David Albert Huffman (August 9, 1925 – October 7, 1999) was an American pioneer in computer science, known for his Huffman coding. He was also one of the pioneers in the field of mathematical origami. Education Huffman earned his bachelor's d ...

among others at Berkeley. Pacitti wrote several books in computer science, especially the Fortran Monitor, which from 1967 to 1987 has sold 250,000 copies in the country, and ''Do Fortran à Internet'' (From Fortran to the Internet), retrospect of his life and information technology in the world, already in its third edition. He launched in 2006 ''Paradigmas do software aberto'' (Paradigms of open source software), his most recent work. He led the introduction of information technology at the ITA, at the Air Force, at COPPE-UFRJ and at UNIRIO. He was rector of the ITA between 1982 and 1984, and established the course of Computer Engineering. His last post in the Air Force Command, as Major-Brigadier Engineer, was the Head of the Directorate of Engineering in 1986 and 1987 season in which he also chaired the ADESG. He was president of the Council of Informatics of the State of Rio de Janeiro from 1987 to 1990. It currently belongs to the National Academy of Engineering and is scientific adviser to the presidency of Consist. On April 24, 2019, the President of the Republic, Jair Messias Bolsonaro, signed Law No. 13,817, in which he granted the title of Patron of Information Technology of Aeronautics to Major-Brigadier Engineer Tércio Pacitti.

Awards

* Excellence in Software Award granted by the International Centre for Software Technology (CTIS), 1996

Decorations

Tercio Pacitti was container, among others, the following medals: * BRA Ordem do Merito Militar Comendador

Commander of the Order of Military Merit (''Ordem do Mérito Militar'') * Order of Naval Merit - Commander (Brazil) - ribbon bar

Commander of the Order of Naval Merit (''Ordem do Mérito Naval'') * BRA OMFA - OMD Grande-Oficial BAR

Grand Officer of the Order of Merit for Defense (''Ordem do Mérito da Defesa'') *

National Order of Scientific Merit - Grand Cross (Brazil) - ribbon bar

Grand Cross of the

National Order of Scientific Merit The National Order of Scientific Merit ( pt, Ordem Nacional do Mérito Científico) is an honor bestowed upon Brazilian and foreign personalities recognized for their scientific and technical contributions to the cause and development of science in ...

(''Ordem Nacional do Mérito Científico'') - President of the Republic of Brazil - Mar/1998. *

Peacemaker Medal (''Medalha do Pacificador'') (Port Min No 791 of 28 Sep 83 / No. 41 BE, 14 Oct 83) * Medalha do Mérito Tamandaré

Medal of Merit Tamandaré (''Medalha Mérito Tamandaré'') - Air Force *

Grand Officer of the Order of Ipiranga (''Ordem do Ipiranga'')

Books

* * * * * *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pacitti, Tercio 1928 births 2014 deaths People from Piracicaba Brazilian people of Italian descent Brazilian computer scientists Recipients of the Great Cross of the National Order of Scientific Merit (Brazil) Brazilian engineers Brazilian Air Force generals Recipients of the Order of Naval Merit (Brazil)