Maurice Nivat

Maurice Nivat
Born	December 21, 1937 (1937-12-21) (age 73) Clermont-Ferrand
Nationality	France
Fields	Computer science
Institutions	University of Paris
Alma mater	Joseph Fourier University
Doctoral advisor	Marcel-Paul Schützenberger
Doctoral students	Bruno Courcelle Philippe Flajolet Gérard Huet Luis Monteiro Jean-Marc Steyaert

Maurice Paul Nivat (born December 21, 1937) is a French computer scientist. His research spans the areas of formal languages, programming language semantics and discrete geometry. A 2006 citation for an honorary doctorate called Nivat one of the fathers of theoretical computer science.^[1] He was a Professor at the University Paris Diderot until 2001.

Early life and education

Nivat was born in Clermont-Ferrand, France. His parents were high-school teachers; his father taught languages while his mother taught mathematics.^[2] In 1954, Nivat moved with his family to Paris.^[2] Nivat was admitted to the École Normale Supérieure in 1956, but began working at the Blaise Pascal Institute of the French National Centre for Scientific Research, a newly established computing laboratory, in 1959.^[1][2] He returned to study in matehmatics in 1961 under the supervision of Marcel-Paul Schützenberger.^[1] His 1967 thesis was entitled Transductions des langages de Chomsky" ("Transductions of Chomsky Languages").

Career

In 1969, Nivat became a professor at Universite Paris VII and taught until 2002.^[3] He is currently a professor emeritus.

Nivat was involved in many endeavours in theoretical computer science in Europe: he was one of the founders of the EATCS in 1972 and organized the first ICALP conference in the same year at INRIA (then called IRIA) in Paris. In 1975, he was a founder of the journal Theoretical Computer Science. He was editor-in-chief of the journal for over 25 years.^[1]

Awards

Since 1983, Nivat has been a corresponding member of the French Academy of Sciences.^[2] Nivat is also an officer of both the Legion d'honneur and the Ordre national du Mérite in France. Nivat won the EATCS award in 2002. He has received honourary doctorates from the University of Bologna in 1997^[4] and the University of Quebec at Montreal in 2006.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} "L'UQAM remet sept doctorats honoris causa à des personnalités marquantes : Maurice Nivat". http://www.uqam.ca/nouvelles/2006/06-282-MN.htm. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Curien, Pierre-Louis (2002). "Une breve biographie scientifique de Maurice Nivat". Theoretical Computer Science 281: 3–23. doi:10.1016/S0304-3975(02)00004-X. 
3. ^ Nivat, Maurice (2002). "EATCS Award Acceptance Speech". Bulletin of the European Association of Theoretical Computer Science 78: 213–220. 
4. ^ "Laurea Honoris Causa in Computer Science from the University of Bologna to Maurice Nivat and Robin Milner". http://www.cs.unibo.it/icalp/Lauree.html. 

Persondata
Name	Nivat, Maurice
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	December 21, 1937
Place of birth	Clermont-Ferrand
Date of death
Place of death