Arto Kustaa Salomaa (6 June 1934 – 26 January 2025) was a Finnish mathematician and computer scientist. His research career, which spanned over 40 years, was focused on
formal languages and
automata theory.
Early life and education
Salomaa was born in
Turku, Finland on 6 June 1934. He earned a
Bachelor's degree from the
University of Turku in 1954 and a
PhD from the same university in 1960. Salomaa's father was a professor of philosophy at the
University of Turku.
Salomaa was introduced to the theory of automata and formal languages during seminars at
Berkeley given by
John Myhill in 1957.
Career
In 1965 Salomaa became a professor of mathematics at the
University of Turku, a position he retired from in 1999. He also spent two years in the late 1960s at the
University of Western Ontario in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, Ontario, Canada, and two years in the 1970s at
Aarhus University in
Aarhus
Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...
, Denmark.
[.]
Salomaa was president of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science from 1979 until 1985.
Publications
Salomaa authored or co-authored 46 textbooks, including '' Theory of Automata'' (1969), '' Formal Languages'' (1973), ''The Mathematical Theory of L-Systems
An L-system or Lindenmayer system is a wikt:parallel, parallel rewriting system and a type of formal grammar. An L-system consists of an alphabet of symbols that can be used to make string (computer science), strings, a collection of Production ...
'' (1980, with Grzegorz Rozenberg), ''Jewels of Formal Language Theory'' (1981) '' Public-Key Cryptography'' (1990) and '' DNA Computing'' (1998, with Grzegorz Rozenberg and Gheorghe Paun). With Rozenberg, Salomaa edited the ''Handbook of Formal Languages'' (1997), a 3-volume, 2000-page reference on formal language theory
In logic, mathematics, computer science, and linguistics, a formal language is a set of string (computer science), strings whose symbols are taken from a set called "#Definition, alphabet".
The alphabet of a formal language consists of symbol ...
. These books have often become standard references in their respective areas. For example, ''Formal Languages'' was reported in 1991 to be among the 100 most cited texts in mathematics.[
Salomaa published over 400 articles in scientific journals during his professional career.]
Personal life and death
Salomaa married in 1959.[.] He had two children, Kirsti and Kai,
Awards and recognition
Salomaa was awarded the title of Academician by the Academy of Finland,[Academy of Finland, .] one of twelve living Finnish individuals awarded the title. He also received the EATCS Award in 2004.[ On 13 June 2013, Salomaa was awarded a Doctor Honoris Causa from the University of Western Ontario.][.]
References
External links
*
Arto Salomaa home page
Arto Salomaa
at the Academia Europaea
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Salomaa, Arto
1934 births
2025 deaths
People from Turku
University of Turku alumni
Academic staff of the University of Turku
Academic staff of the University of Western Ontario
Academic staff of Aarhus University
Finnish mathematicians
Finnish computer scientists
Members of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters
Members of Academia Europaea