Peter Naur | |
|---|---|
 Naur in 2008 | |
| Born | (1928-10-25)25 October 1928 Frederiksberg, Denmark |
| Died | 3 January 2016(2016-01-03) (aged 87) Herlev, Denmark |
| Nationality | Danish |
| Known for | ALGOL Backus–Naur form |
| Spouse | Christiane Floyd |
| Awards | Computer Pioneer Award (1986) Turing Award (2005) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer science,informatics |
| Institutions | Regnecentralen Niels Bohr Institute Technical University of Denmark University of Copenhagen |
Peter Naur (25 October 1928 – 3 January 2016)[1] was a Danishcomputer science pioneer and 2005Turing Award winner. He is best remembered as a contributor, withJohn Backus, to theBackus–Naur form (BNF) notation used in describing thesyntax for mostprogramming languages. He also contributed to creating the languageALGOL 60.
Naur began his career as anastronomer for which he received hisDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree in 1957, but his encounter with computers led to a change of profession. From 1959 to 1969, he was employed atRegnecentralen, the Danish computing company, while at the same time giving lectures at theNiels Bohr Institute and theTechnical University of Denmark. From 1969 to 1998, Naur was a professor of computer science atUniversity of Copenhagen.
He was a member of theInternational Federation for Information Processing (IFIP)IFIP Working Group 2.1 on Algorithmic Languages and Calculi,[2] whichspecified, supports, and maintains the languagesALGOL 60 andALGOL 68.[3] Between the years 1960 and 1993 he was a member of the editorial board forBIT Numerical Mathematics, a journal focused onnumerical analysis.[4]
Naur's main areas of inquiry were design, structure, and performance ofcomputer programs andalgorithms. He also pioneered insoftware engineering andsoftware architecture. In his bookComputing: A Human Activity (1992), which is a collection of his contributions to computer science, he rejected the formalist school of programming that views programming as a branch ofmathematics. He did not like being associated with theBackus–Naur form (attributed to him byDonald Knuth) and said that he would prefer it to be called theBackus normal form.
Naur was married to computer scientistChristiane Floyd.
Naur disliked the termcomputer science and suggested it be calleddatalogy ordata science. The former term has been adopted in Denmark and Sweden asdatalogi, while the latter term is now used fordata analysis, including statistics and databases.
Since the middle 1960s, computer science has been practiced in Denmark under Peter Naur's termdatalogy, the science of data processes. Starting at Regnecentralen and the University of Copenhagen, the Copenhagen Tradition of Computer Science has developed its own special characteristics by means of a close connection with applications and other fields of knowledge. The tradition is not least visible in the area of education. Comprehensive project activity is an integral part of the curriculum, thus presenting theory as an aspect of realistic solutions known primarily through actual experience.[5] Peter Naur early recognized the particular educational challenges presented by computer science. His innovations have shown their quality and vitality also at other universities. There is a close connection between computer science training as it has been formed at Copenhagen University, and the view of computer science which characterized Peter Naur's research.[6]
In later years, he was quite outspoken of the pursuit of science as a whole: Naur can possibly be identified with theempiricist school, that tells that one shall not seek deeper connections between things that manifest themselves in the world, but keep to the observable facts. He has attacked both certain strands of philosophy and psychology from this viewpoint. He was also developing a theory of human thinking which he called "Synapse-State Theory of Mental Life".[7]
Naur won the 2005Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) A.M.Turing Award for his work on defining the programming languageALGOL 60.[8] In particular, his role as editor of the influentialReport on the Algorithmic Language ALGOL 60 with its pioneering use ofBNF was recognized. Naur is the only Dane to have won the Turing Award.
Naur died on 3 January 2016 after a short illness.[9] His former home inGentofte is now owned by the sociologistClaire Maxwell.
Numbers refer to the bibliography published by E. Sveinsdottir and E. Frøkjær.[citation needed] Naur published a large number of articles and chapters on astronomy, computer science, issues in society, classical music, psychology, and education.
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