Robert William "Bob" Harper, Jr. (born ) is a

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

professor at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

who works in

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...

research. Prior to his position at Carnegie Mellon, Harper was a research fellow at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

Career

Harper made major contributions to the design of the

Standard ML Standard ML (SML) is a general-purpose, modular, functional programming language with compile-time type checking and type inference. It is popular among compiler writers and programming language researchers, as well as in the development of the ...

programming language and the LF logical framework. Harper was named an

ACM Fellow ACM or A.C.M. may refer to: Aviation * AGM-129 ACM, 1990–2012 USAF cruise missile * Air chief marshal * Air combat manoeuvring or dogfighting * Air cycle machine * Arica Airport (Colombia) (IATA: ACM), in Arica, Amazonas, Colombia Computing * ...

in 2005 for his contributions to

type systems In computer programming, a type system is a logical system comprising a set of rules that assigns a property called a type (computer science), type to every "term" (a word, phrase, or other set of symbols). Usually the terms are various constru ...

for programming languages. In 2021, he received the ACM SIGPLAN Programming Languages Achievement Award for his "foundational contributions to our understanding of type theory and its use in the design, specification, implementation, and verification of modern programming languages".

Books

Robin Milner Arthur John Robin Gorell Milner (13 January 1934 – 20 March 2010), known as Robin Milner or A. J. R. G. Milner, was a British computer scientist, and a Turing Award winner.

Mads Tofte Mads Tofte (born 20 April 1959) is a Danish computer scientist who has contributed in particular to functional programming and the Standard ML programming language. Education Tofte was born in Lyngby, Denmark and grew up in Holbæk, Denmark. ...

, Robert Harper, and

David MacQueen David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

. ''The Definition of Standard ML (Revised)''. MIT Press, 1997. *Robert Harper (editor).
Types in Compilation
'. Springer-Verlag Lecture Notes in Computer Science, volume 2071, 2001. *Robert Harper.
Type Systems for Programming Languages
'. Draft, 2000. *Robert Harper.
Programming in Standard ML
'. Working Draft, 2013. *Robert Harper. ''Practical Foundations for Programming Languages''
2007 draft
2nd edition: , 2016.

Personal life

In 2003–2008, Harper hosted the progressive talk sho
''Left Out''
on

WRCT-FM WRCT (88.3 FM) is a non-commercial freeform radio station based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The volunteer-run station has a studio in the basement of Carnegie Mellon's University Center. WRCT broadcasts throughout the city with an ERP of 1.75 ...

with fellow host and

School of Computer Science faculty member Danny Sleator.

References

Bibliography

Robert Harper's Homepage

Existential Type
Robert Harper's blog Programming language researchers Carnegie Mellon University faculty Living people Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) {{compu-scientist-stub