Maurice Nivat | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Nivat in 2006 | |
| Born | (1937-12-21)21 December 1937 |
| Died | 21 September 2017(2017-09-21) (aged 79) |
| Nationality | French |
| Alma mater | Joseph Fourier University |
| Known for | Theoretical computer science |
| Awards | |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer science |
| Institutions | University of Paris |
| Thesis | Transductions of Chomsky Languages (1967) |
| Doctoral advisor | Marcel-Paul Schützenberger |
| Doctoral students | Bruno Courcelle Philippe Flajolet Gérard Huet |
Maurice Paul Nivat (21 December 1937 – 21 September 2017) was a Frenchcomputer scientist. His research incomputer science spanned the areas offormal languages,programming language semantics, anddiscrete geometry. A 2006 citation for an honorarydoctorate (Ph.D.) called Nivat one of the fathers oftheoretical computer science.[1] He was aprofessor at theUniversity Paris Diderot until 2001.
Nivat was born inClermont-Ferrand, France. His parents were high-school teachers; his father taught languages while his mother taught mathematics. His sister,Aline, became a notable mathematician.[2]In 1954, Nivat moved with his family to Paris.[2] Nivat was admitted to theÉcole normale supérieure in 1956, but began working at theBlaise Pascal Institute of theFrench National Centre for Scientific Research, a newly established computing laboratory, in 1959.[1][2] He returned to study mathematics in 1961 under the supervision ofMarcel-Paul Schützenberger.[1] His 1967 thesis was entitledTransductions des langages de Chomsky ("Transductions ofChomsky Languages").
In 1969, Nivat became a professor atParis Diderot University and taught until 2002.[3] He remained as professor emeritus until his death in 2017.
He was involved in many endeavours in theoretical computer science in Europe: he was one of the founders of theEuropean Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS) in 1972 and organized the firstInternational Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP) conference in the same year atFrench Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation (INRIA, then called IRIA) in Paris. In 1975, he was a founder of the journalTheoretical Computer Science. He was editor-in-chief of the journal for over 25 years.[1]
He was a member of theInternational Federation for Information Processing (IFIP)IFIP Working Group 2.1 on Algorithmic Languages and Calculi,[4] whichspecified, supports, and maintains theprogramming languagesALGOL 60 andALGOL 68.[5]
Since 1983, Nivat was a corresponding member of theFrench Academy of Sciences.[2] Nivat was also an officer of both theLegion d'honneur and theOrdre national du Mérite, and a commander of theOrdre des Palmes Académiques in France. Nivat won theEATCS award in 2002. He received honorary doctorates from theUniversity of Bologna in 1997[6] and theUniversity of Quebec at Montreal in 2006.[1]
