Haskell Brooks Curry | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1900-09-12)September 12, 1900 |
| Died | September 1, 1982(1982-09-01) (aged 81) |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | Curry's paradox Currying Curry–Howard correspondence Scott–Curry theorem B, C, K, W system Combinatory logic Formalism in the philosophy of mathematics |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Mathematics Logic computer science |
| Institutions | Pennsylvania State University University of Amsterdam |
| Doctoral advisor | David Hilbert |
Haskell Brooks Curry (/ˈhæskəl/HAS-kəl; September 12, 1900 – September 1, 1982) was an Americanmathematician,logician andcomputer scientist. Curry is best known for his work incombinatory logic, whose initial concept is based on a paper byMoses Schönfinkel,[1] for which Curry did much of the development. Curry is also known forCurry's paradox and theCurry–Howard correspondence. Named for him are threeprogramming languages:Haskell,Brook, andCurry, and the concept ofcurrying, a method to transform functions, used inmathematics andcomputer science.
Curry was born on(1900-09-12)September 12, 1900 inMillis, Massachusetts, toSamuel Silas Curry andAnna Baright Curry, who ran a school forelocution. He enteredHarvard University in 1916 to study medicine but switched to mathematics before graduating in 1920. After two years of graduate work inelectrical engineering atMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), he returned to Harvard to studyphysics, earning aMaster of Arts (M.A.) in 1924. Curry's interest in mathematical logic began during this period when he was introduced to thePrincipia Mathematica, the attempt byAlfred North Whitehead andBertrand Russell to ground mathematics in symbolic logic. Remaining at Harvard, Curry pursued aDoctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in mathematics. While he was directed byGeorge David Birkhoff to work ondifferential equations, his interests continued to shift to logic. In 1927, while an instructor atPrinceton University, he discovered the work ofMoses Schönfinkel in combinatory logic. Schönfinkel's work had anticipated much of Curry's own research, and as a consequence, he moved toUniversity of Göttingen where he could work withHeinrich Behmann andPaul Bernays, who were familiar with Schönfinkel's work. Curry was supervised byDavid Hilbert and worked closely with Bernays, receiving a Ph.D. in 1930 with a dissertation on combinatory logic.[2]
In 1928, before leaving for Göttingen, Curry married Mary Virginia Wheatley. The couple lived in Germany while Curry completed his dissertation, then, in 1929, moved toState College, Pennsylvania where Curry accepted a position atPennsylvania State College. They had two children, Anne Wright Curry (July 27, 1930) and Robert Wheatley Curry (July 6, 1934). Curry remained at Penn State for the next 37 years. He spent one year atUniversity of Chicago in 1931–1932 under aNational Research Fellowship and one year in 1938–1939 at theInstitute for Advanced Study in Princeton. In 1942 he took a leave of absence to do applied mathematics for the United States government duringWorld War II, notably at theFrankford Arsenal. Immediately after the war he worked on theENIAC project, in 1945 and 1946. Under aFulbright fellowship, he collaborated withRobert Feys inLouvain, Belgium. After retiring from Penn State in 1966, Curry accepted a position at theUniversity of Amsterdam. In 1970, after finishing the second volume of his treatise on the combinatory logic, Curry retired from the University of Amsterdam and returned to State College, Pennsylvania.
Haskell Curry died on September 1, 1982(1982-09-01) (aged 81), in State College, Pennsylvania.
The focus of Curry's work were attempts to show that combinatory logic could provide a foundation for mathematics. Towards the end of 1933, he learned of theKleene–Rosser paradox from correspondence withJohn Rosser. The paradox, developed by Rosser andStephen Kleene, had proved the inconsistency of a number of relatedformal systems, including one proposed byAlonzo Church (a system which had thelambda calculus as a consistent subsystem) and Curry's own system.[2] However, unlike Church, Kleene, and Rosser, Curry did not give up on the foundational approach, saying that he did not want to "run away from paradoxes."[3]
By working in the area of Combinatory Logic for his entire career, Curry essentially became the founder and biggest name in the field. Combinatory logic is the foundation for one style offunctional programming language. The power and scope of combinatory logic are quite similar to that of thelambda calculus of Church, and the latter formalism has tended to predominate in recent decades.
During World War II, Curry worked at theFrankford Arsenal,where he developed asteepest descent algorithm, based on work byCauchy.[4]This became a foundational example of moderngradient descent methods.
In 1947 Curry also described one of the first high-level programming languages and provided the first description of a procedure to convert a general arithmetic expression into a code for one-address computer.[5]
He taught at Harvard,Princeton, and from 1929 to 1966, at thePennsylvania State University. In 1942, he publishedCurry's paradox. In 1966 he became professor of logic and its history and philosophy of exact sciences at theUniversity of Amsterdam, the successor ofEvert Willem Beth.[6]
Curry also wrote and taughtmathematical logic more generally; his teaching in this area culminated in his 1963Foundations of Mathematical Logic. His preferred philosophy of mathematics wasformalism (cf. his 1951 book), following his mentor Hilbert, but his writings betray substantial philosophical curiosity and a very open mind aboutintuitionistic logic.
The article that founded combinatory logic. English translation:Schönfinkel (1967)
| Namesakes:mathematics, computer programming |
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