Lawrence Paulson facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Lawrence Paulson
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Paulson in 2017
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Lawrence Charles Paulson
1955 (age 69–70) |
| Citizenship | US/UK |
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| Institutions | University of Cambridge Technical University of Munich |
| Thesis | A Compiler Generator for Semantic Grammars (1981) |
| Doctoral advisor | John L. Hennessy |
Lawrence Charles Paulson is an American computer scientist. He is a professor at the University of Cambridge, where he teaches about how computers can "think" using logic. He is also a Fellow at Clare College, Cambridge.
Contents
Paulson's Early Education
Lawrence Paulson finished his studies at the California Institute of Technology in 1977. He then earned his PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University in 1981. His research focused on programming languages and tools that help create them. His advisor was John L. Hennessy.
Discoveries and Research
Paulson joined the University of Cambridge in 1983. In 1987, he became a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge. He is well-known for his book, ML for the Working Programmer, which is about the ML programming language.
Isabelle Theorem Prover
A big part of his work involves a special computer program called Isabelle. He created Isabelle in 1986. This program helps prove if computer systems or math ideas are correct. It's like a super-smart helper for checking facts.
Computer Security and Logic
Paulson has used Isabelle to check if secret codes and security systems are safe. He also worked on formalizing complex ideas in logic, like those from Kurt Gödel. More recently, he built a new program called MetiTarski. This program helps solve problems with special math functions.
Teaching Computer Science
Paulson taught a course at Cambridge called Logic and Proof. This course showed students how computers can automatically prove things. He also used to teach Foundations of Computer Science. This course introduced students to a type of programming called functional programming.
Awards and Special Honors
Lawrence Paulson has received several important awards. In 2017, he was chosen as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). This is a very high honor for scientists in the UK. In 2008, he became a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery. He was also named a Distinguished Affiliated Professor at the Technical University of Munich.
Paulson's Family Life
Lawrence Paulson has two children from his first marriage. His first wife, Dr. Susan Mary Paulson, passed away in 2010. Since 2012, he has been married to Dr. Elena Tchougounova.
