Gunther Schmidt (born 1939,

Rüdersdorf Rüdersdorf is a municipality in the district Märkisch-Oderland, in Brandenburg, Germany, near Berlin. It is served by the Schöneiche bei Berlin tramway which runs from Rüdersdorf through Schöneiche to Berlin-Friedrichshagen station on th ...

) is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

who works also in

informatics Informatics is the study of computational systems, especially those for data storage and retrieval. According to ACM ''Europe and'' '' Informatics Europe'', informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which t ...

Life

Schmidt began studying Mathematics in 1957 at

Göttingen University Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

. His academic teachers were in particular Kurt Reidemeister, Wilhelm Klingenberg and Karl Stein. In 1960 he transferred to

Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich or LMU; german: Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It is Germany's sixth-oldest university in continuous operatio ...

where he studied functions of several complex variables with Karl Stein. Schmidt wrote a thesis on

analytic continuation In complex analysis, a branch of mathematics, analytic continuation is a technique to extend the domain of definition of a given analytic function. Analytic continuation often succeeds in defining further values of a function, for example in a ...

of such functions. In 1962 Schmidt began work at

TU München The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; german: Technische Universität München) is a public research university in Munich, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences. Establ ...

with students of Robert Sauer, in the beginning in labs and tutorials, later in mentoring and administration. Schmidt's interests turned toward programming when he collaborated with Hans Langmaack on

rewriting In mathematics, computer science, and logic, rewriting covers a wide range of methods of replacing subterms of a formula with other terms. Such methods may be achieved by rewriting systems (also known as rewrite systems, rewrite engines, or reduc ...

and the

braid group A braid (also referred to as a plait) is a complex structure or pattern formed by interlacing two or more strands of flexible material such as textile yarns, wire, or hair. The simplest and most common version is a flat, solid, three-strande ...

in 1969.

Friedrich L. Bauer Friedrich Ludwig "Fritz" Bauer (10 June 1924 – 26 March 2015) was a German pioneer of computer science and professor at the Technical University of Munich. Life Bauer earned his Abitur in 1942 and served in the Wehrmacht during World Wa ...

and

Klaus Samelson Klaus Samelson (21 December 1918 – 25 May 1980) was a German mathematician, physicist, and computer pioneer in the area of programming language translation and push-pop stack algorithms for sequential formula translation on computers. Early ...

were establishing

software engineering Software engineering is a systematic engineering approach to software development. A software engineer is a person who applies the principles of software engineering to design, develop, maintain, test, and evaluate computer software. The term '' ...

at the university and Schmidt joined their group in 1974. In 1977 he submitted his

Habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including ...

"Programs as partial graphs". He became a

professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professo ...

in 1980. Shortly after that, he was appointed to hold the chair of the late

for one and a half years. From 1988 until his retirement in 2004, he held a professorship at the Faculty for Computer Science of the Universität der Bundeswehr München. He was a classroom instructor for beginners courses as well as special courses in

mathematical logic Mathematical logic is the study of formal logic within mathematics. Major subareas include model theory, proof theory, set theory, and recursion theory. Research in mathematical logic commonly addresses the mathematical properties of forma ...

, semantics of

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...

s, construction of

compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs tha ...

s, and

algorithmic language ALGOL (; short for "Algorithmic Language") is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in 1958. ALGOL heavily influenced many other languages and was the standard method for algorithm description used by the ...

s. Working with Thomas Strohlein, he authored a

textbook A textbook is a book containing a comprehensive compilation of content in a branch of study with the intention of explaining it. Textbooks are produced to meet the needs of educators, usually at educational institutions. Schoolbooks are textbook ...

on relations and

graph Graph may refer to: Mathematics *Graph (discrete mathematics), a structure made of vertices and edges **Graph theory, the study of such graphs and their properties *Graph (topology), a topological space resembling a graph in the sense of discre ...

s, published in German in 1989 and English in 1993 and again in 2012. In 2001 he became involved in a large project (17 nations) with the

European Cooperation in Science and Technology The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST Association) is running an EU-funded programme which enables researchers and innovators to set-up their own research networks in a wide range of scientific topics, called COST Actions. Whi ...

: Schmidt was chairman of project COST 274 TARSKI (Theory and Application of Relational Structures as Knowledge Instruments). In 2014 a

festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the ...

was organized to celebrate his 75th year. The calculus of relations had a relatively low profile among mathematical topics in the twentieth century, but Schmidt and others have raised that profile. The

partial order In mathematics, especially order theory, a partially ordered set (also poset) formalizes and generalizes the intuitive concept of an ordering, sequencing, or arrangement of the elements of a set. A poset consists of a set together with a binary ...

of binary relations can be organized by grouping through closure. In 2018 Schmidt and Michael Winter published ''Relational Topology'' which reviews classical

mathematical structure In mathematics, a structure is a set endowed with some additional features on the set (e.g. an operation, relation, metric, or topology). Often, the additional features are attached or related to the set, so as to provide it with some additiona ...

s, such as

binary operation In mathematics, a binary operation or dyadic operation is a rule for combining two elements (called operands) to produce another element. More formally, a binary operation is an operation of arity two. More specifically, an internal binary op ...

s and

topological space In mathematics, a topological space is, roughly speaking, a geometrical space in which closeness is defined but cannot necessarily be measured by a numeric distance. More specifically, a topological space is a set whose elements are called poin ...

, through the lens of calculus of relations.

Work

In 1981 he participated in the

International Summer School Marktoberdorf The International Summer School Marktoberdorf is an annual two-week summer school for international computer science and mathematics postgraduate students and other young researchers, held annually since 1970 in Marktoberdorf, near Munich in sou ...

, and edited the lecture notes ''Theoretical Foundations of Programming Methodology'' with

Manfred Broy Manfred Broy (born 10 August 1949, Landsberg am Lech) is a German computer scientist, and an emeritus professor in the Department of Informatics at the Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany. Biography Broy gained his Doctor of Phil ...

. Gunther Schmidt is mainly known for his work on Relational Mathematics; he was co-founder of the

RAMiCS RAMiCS, the International Conference on Relational and Algebraic Methods in Computer Science, is an academic conference organized every eighteen months by an international steering committee and held in different locations mainly in Europe, but a ...

conference series in 1994. His textbooks on calculus of relations exhibit applications and potential of

algebraic logic In mathematical logic, algebraic logic is the reasoning obtained by manipulating equations with free variables. What is now usually called classical algebraic logic focuses on the identification and algebraic description of models appropriate for ...

Books

* 1989: (with Ströhlein, T.) ''Relationen und Graphen'', Mathematik für Informatiker, Springer Verlag, , * 1993: (with Ströhlein, T.) ''Relations and Graphs'' Discrete Mathematics for Computer Scientists, EATCS Monographs on Theoretical Computer Science, Springer Verlag, * 2011: ''Relational Mathematics'', Encyclopedia of Mathematics and its Applications, vol. 132,

Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer. Cambridge University Pr ...

* 2018: (with M. Winter) ''Relational Topology'',

Lecture Notes in Mathematics ''Lecture Notes in Mathematics'' is a book series in the field of mathematics, including articles related to both research and teaching. It was established in 1964 and was edited by A. Dold, Heidelberg and B. Eckmann, Zürich. Its publisher is Sp ...

vol. 2208, Springer Verlag, * 2020: ''Rückblick auf die Anfänge der Münchner Informatik'', Die blaue Stunde der Informatik, Springer-Vieweg, ,

Editorships

* 2006: (with de Swart, H. C. M., Orłowska, E., and Roubens, M.) ''Theory and Application of Relational Structures as Knowledge Instruments II'', Wrap-up volume of the COST Action 274: TARSKI,

Lecture Notes in Computer Science ''Lecture Notes in Computer Science'' is a series of computer science books published by Springer Science+Business Media since 1973. Overview The series contains proceedings, post-proceedings, monographs, and Festschrifts. In addition, tutorial ...

#4342, Springer , * 2003: (with de Swart, H. C. M., Orłowska, E., and Roubens, M.) ''Theory and Application of Relational Structures as Knowledge Instruments'', Kickoff volume of the COST Action 274: TARSKI,

#2929, Springer, * 2001: (with Parnas, D., Kahl, W.) Relational Methods in Software, Special Issue of ''Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science,'', vol. 44, numbers 3, * 1999: (with Jaoua, A.) Relational Methods in Computer Science, Special Issue of ''Information Sciences'', vol. 119, numbers 3+4, Elsevier * 1997: with Brink, C., Kahl, W.
Relational Methods in Computer Science
Advances in Computing Science. Springer * 1994: (with Mayr, E. W., and Tinhofer, G.) ''Graph-Theoretic Concepts in Computer Science'', vol. 903 of

, Proc. 20th Intern. Workshop WG '94, Jun 17–19, Herrsching, Springer 1994, * 1991: (with Berghammer, R.) ''Graph-Theoretic Concepts in Computer Science'', vol. 570 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Proc. 17th Intern. Workshop WG '91, Jun 17-19, Richterheim Fischbachau, Springer 1991, , * 1987: (with Tinhofer, G) ''Graph-Theoretic Concepts in Computer Science'' vol. 246 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Proc. 12th Intern. Workshop WG '86, Jun 17–19, Kloster Bernried, Springer, , * 1982: (with Broy, M.) ''Theoretical Foundations of Programming Methodology''. Reidel Publishers, . * 1981: (with Bauer, F. L.) ''Erinnerungen an Robert Sauer, Beiträge zum Gedächtniskolloquium anläßlich seines 10. Todestages'', Springer

References

External links

Homepage
at Universität der Bundeswehr München with access to a full list of publications and talks * * *
researchr
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Gunther 1939 births 20th-century German mathematicians 21st-century German mathematicians German computer scientists People from Märkisch-Oderland Living people German Lutherans Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich alumni Technical University of Munich faculty Bundeswehr University Munich faculty Formal methods people Programming language researchers German textbook writers Computer science writers Theoretical computer scientists