Hal Abelson | |
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 Abelson in 2007 | |
| Born | Harold Abelson (1947-04-26)April 26, 1947 (age 78)[2] |
| Alma mater | |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer science education Amorphous computing |
| Institutions | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| Thesis | Topologically Distinct Conjugate-Varieties with Finite Fundamental-Group (1973) |
| Doctoral advisor | Dennis Sullivan[1] |
| Doctoral students | |
| Website | www |
Harold Abelson (born April 26, 1947)[2] is an American mathematician and computer scientist. He is a professor of computer science and engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at theMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a founding director of bothCreative Commons[5] and theFree Software Foundation,[6] creator of theMIT App Inventor platform, and co-author of the widely-used textbookStructure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (SICP), sometimes also referred to as "the wizard book" because of its cover illustration.
He directed the first implementation of the languageLogo for theApple II, which made the language widely available onpersonal computers starting in 1981; and published a widely selling book on Logo in 1982. Together withGerald Jay Sussman, Abelson developed MIT's introductory computer science subject, "The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" (often referred to by the MIT course number, 6.001), a subject organized around the idea that a computer language is primarily a formal medium for expressing ideas about methodology, rather than just a way to get a computer to perform operations.
Abelson and Sussman also cooperate in codirecting the MIT Project on Mathematics and Computation. TheMIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) project was spearheaded by Abelson and other MIT faculty.[3]
Abelson led an internal investigation of MIT's choices and role in the prosecution ofAaron Swartz by theFederal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which concluded that MIT did nothing wrong legally, but recommended that MIT consider changing some of its internal policies.
Abelson graduated with aBachelor of Arts degree in mathematics fromPrinceton University in 1969 after completing a senior thesis onActions with fixed-point set: a homology sphere, supervised byWilliam Browder.[1][7]
He received hisPhD in mathematics from theMassachusetts Institute of Technology in 1973 after completing his research onTopologically distinct conjugate varieties with finite fundamental group supervised byDennis Sullivan.[8][9]
Abelson is also a founding director ofCreative Commons andPublic Knowledge, and a director of theCenter for Democracy and Technology.[10][11][12][8]
Abelson has a longstanding interest in using computation as a conceptual framework in teaching. He directed the first implementation ofLogo for theApple II, which made the language widely available on personal computers starting in 1981; and published a widely selling book on Logo in 1982. His bookTurtle Geometry, written withAndrea diSessa in 1981, presented a computational approach to geometry which has been cited as "the first step in a revolutionary change in the entire teaching/learning process." In March 2015, a copy of Abelson's 1969 implementation ofTurtle graphics was sold atThe Algorithm Auction, the world’s first auction of computeralgorithms.[13]
Together withGerald Jay Sussman, Abelson developed MIT's introductory computer science subject,Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, a subject organized around the notion that a computer language is primarily a formal medium for expressing ideas about methodology, rather than just a way to get a computer to perform operations. This work, through the textbook of the same name, videotapes of their lectures, and the availability on personal computers of theScheme dialect ofLisp (used in teaching the course), has had a worldwide impact on university computer science education.[14][15]
He is a visiting faculty member at Google, where he was part of theApp Inventor for Android team, an educational program aiming to make it easy for people with no programming background to write mobile phone applications and "explore whether this could change the nature of introductory computing".[16] He is coauthor of the bookApp Inventor with David Wolber,Ellen Spertus, and Liz Looney, published by O'Reilly Media in 2011.[17][18][19] After Google released App Inventor as open source software in late 2009 and provided seed funding to theMIT Media Lab in 2011, Abelson became codirector of the MIT Center for Mobile Learning to continue development of App Inventor.[20]
Abelson and Sussman also cooperate in codirecting the MIT Project on Mathematics and Computation, a project of theMIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), formerly a joint project of theMIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (AI Lab) andMIT Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS), CSAIL's components. The goal of the project is to create better computational tools for scientists and engineers. But even with powerful numerical computers, exploring complex physical systems still requires substantial human effort and human judgement to prepare simulations and to interpret numerical results.[6]
Together with their students, Abelson and Sussman are combining methods fromnumerical computation,symbolic algebra, andheuristic programming to develop programs that not only perform massive numerical computations, but that also interpret these computations anddiscuss the results in qualitative terms. Programs such as these could form the basis for intelligent scientific instruments that monitor physical systems based upon high-level behavioral descriptions. More generally, they could lead to a new generation of computational tools that can autonomously explore complex physical systems, and which will play an important part in the future practice of science and engineering. At the same time, these programs incorporate computational formulations of scientific knowledge that can form the foundations of better ways to teach science and engineering.[6]
Abelson and Sussman have also been a part of thefree software movement (FSM), including serving on theboard of directors of theFree Software Foundation (FSF).[21]
Abelson is known to have been involved in publishingAndrew Huang'sHacking the Xbox andKeith Winstein's seven-linePerlDeCSS script (namedqrpff), andLibrary Access to Music Project (LAMP), MIT's campus-wide music distribution system. TheMIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) project was spearheaded by Hal Abelson and other MIT faculty.[15][22]
In January 2013,open access activistAaron Swartz died by suicide. He had been arrested near MIT and was facing up to 35 years imprisonment for the alleged crime of downloadingJournal Storage (JSTOR) articles through MIT'sopen access campus network.[23]
In response, MIT appointed professor Hal Abelson to lead an internal investigation of the school's choices and role in the prosecution ofAaron Swartz by the FBI.[24][25][26] The report was delivered on July 26, 2013. It concluded that MIT did nothing wrong legally, but recommended that MIT consider changing some of its internal policies.[27]
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