Roland Fraïssé

Roland Fraïssé (born 1920; died Marseille, March 30, 2008 [ [http://www.site.uottawa.ca/~lrakotom/rogics2008/RolandFraisse.html Rogics08 - Deces de Roland Fraisse - Message de Maurice Pouzet et Gerard Lopez] , accessed May 22, 2008.] ) was a French mathematical logician. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Paris in 1953. In his thesis ["Sur une nouvelle classification des systèmes de relations", Roland Fraïssé, "Comptes Rendus" 230 (1950), 1022–1024.] ["Sur quelques classifications des systèmes de relations", Roland Fraïssé, thesis, Paris, 1953;published in "Publications Scientifiques de l'Université d'Alger", series A 1 (1954), 35–182.] , Fraïssé used the back-and-forth method to determine whether two model-theoretic structures were elementarily equivalent. This method of determining elementary equivalence was later formulated as the Ehrenfeucht–Fraïssé game. Fraïssé worked primarily in relation theory. Another of his important works was the Fraïssé construction of a Fraïssé limit of finite structures.

Most of his career was spent as Professor at the University of Provence in Marseille, France.

References

Selected publications

* "Sur quelques classifications des systèmes de relations", thesis, University of Paris, 1953; published in "Publications Scientifiques de l'Université d'Alger", series A 1 (1954), 35–182.
* "Cours de logique mathématique", Paris: Gauthier-Villars Éditeur, 1967; second edition, 3 vols., 1971–1975; tr. into English and ed. by David Louvish as "Course of Mathematical Logic", 2 vols., Dordrecht: Reidel, 1973–1974.
* "Theory of relations", tr. into English by P. Clote, Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1986; rev. ed. 2000.