Life work award for computer scientist Grzegorz Rozenberg
Leiden prof. emeritus Grzegorz Rozenberg is honoured with the first life time award in formal languages, a research area of theoretical computer science. During a small ceremony at his house, he received a statue that was specially made for the occasion.
Twentieth anniversary
Developments in Language Theory (DLT) is the world leading conference on automata and language theory, a basic area in theoretical computer science. Prof. Rozenberg is one of the two initiators of this scientific meeting. ‘The 20th edition of the conference took place in Montreal in 2016’, explains Juhani Karhumäki , chairman of the steering committee. ‘To emphasize the importance of automata and language theory and to celebrate the anniversary, the steering committee decided to create the DLT Award.’
New directions and a handbook
‘Prof. Rozenberg was chosen – with great enthusiasm – to be the winner of the first DLT Award’, says Karhumäki. ‘He has been among the most outstanding researchers of the area, creating several new directions of the theory and solving many fundamental problems in his striking articles.’
Karhumäki proceeds: ‘With the award, we also thank Rozenberg for collecting decades of research on formal languages in his Handbook of Formal Languages, which consists of three volumes and 2000 pages. He wrote this handbook jointly with Arto Salomaa, co-initiator of our conference.’
Glass owl
The statue that came with the award represents a glass owl surrounded by a golden circle. It was designed by the Slovak artist Achilleas Sdoukos. Karhumäki: ‘It is a piece of art, with which we wish to symbolize the scientific wisdom visible everywhere in the work of prof. Rozenberg’.
About prof. Grzegorz Rozenberg
Prof. Grzegorz Rozenberg was born in Poland, where he obtained his Master’s degree in computer science and electronics and his Ph.D. degree in mathematics. He is working at Leiden University since 1979. After his retirement in 2007, he has proceeded with his research. He holds 6 honorary doctorates from universities across Europe. He has published over 500 papers, 6 books and he (co-)edited over 100 books.