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John Alan Robinson (9 March 1930 – 5 August 2016) was a philosopher, mathematician, and
computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...
. He was a
professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...
at
Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...
. Alan Robinson's major contribution is to the foundations of
automated theorem proving Automated theorem proving (also known as ATP or automated deduction) is a subfield of automated reasoning and mathematical logic dealing with proving mathematical theorems by computer programs. Automated reasoning over mathematical proof was a majo ...
. His unification algorithm eliminated one source of
combinatorial explosion In mathematics, a combinatorial explosion is the rapid growth of the complexity of a problem due to the way its combinatorics depends on input, constraints and bounds. Combinatorial explosion is sometimes used to justify the intractability of cert ...
in resolution provers; it also prepared the ground for the
logic programming Logic programming is a programming, database and knowledge representation paradigm based on formal logic. A logic program is a set of sentences in logical form, representing knowledge about some problem domain. Computation is performed by applyin ...
paradigm, in particular for the
Prolog Prolog is a logic programming language that has its origins in artificial intelligence, automated theorem proving, and computational linguistics. Prolog has its roots in first-order logic, a formal logic. Unlike many other programming language ...
language. Robinson received the 1996 Herbrand Award for Distinguished Contributions to
Automated Reasoning In computer science, in particular in knowledge representation and reasoning and metalogic, the area of automated reasoning is dedicated to understanding different aspects of reasoning. The study of automated reasoning helps produce computer progr ...
.


Life

Robinson was born in Halifax, Yorkshire, England in 1930 and left for the United States in 1952 with a
classics Classics, also classical studies or Ancient Greek and Roman studies, is the study of classical antiquity. In the Western world, ''classics'' traditionally refers to the study of Ancient Greek literature, Ancient Greek and Roman literature and ...
degree from
Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
. He studied philosophy at the
University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...
before moving to
Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
where he received his PhD in philosophy in 1956. He then worked at
DuPont Dupont, DuPont, Du Pont, duPont, or du Pont may refer to: People * Dupont (surname) Dupont, also spelled as DuPont, duPont, Du Pont, or du Pont is a French surname meaning "of the bridge", historically indicating that the holder of the surname re ...
as an
operations research Operations research () (U.S. Air Force Specialty Code: Operations Analysis), often shortened to the initialism OR, is a branch of applied mathematics that deals with the development and application of analytical methods to improve management and ...
analyst, where he learned
computer programming Computer programming or coding is the composition of sequences of instructions, called computer program, programs, that computers can follow to perform tasks. It involves designing and implementing algorithms, step-by-step specifications of proc ...
and taught himself
mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...
. He moved to
Rice University William Marsh Rice University, commonly referred to as Rice University, is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. Established in 1912, the university spans 300 acres. Rice University comp ...
in 1961, spending his summers as a visiting researcher at the
Argonne National Laboratory Argonne National Laboratory is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Lemont, Illinois, Lemont, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1946, the laboratory is owned by the United Sta ...
's Applied Mathematics Division. He moved to Syracuse University as Distinguished Professor of Logic and Computer Science in 1967 and became professor emeritus in 1993. It was at Argonne that Robinson became interested in automated theorem proving and developed unification and the resolution principle. Resolution and unification have since been incorporated in many automated theorem-proving systems and are the basis for the inference mechanisms used in logic programming and the programming language Prolog. Robinson was the Founding Editor of the ''
Journal of Logic Programming The ''Journal of Logical and Algebraic Methods in Programming'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal established in 1984. It was originally titled ''The Journal of Logic Programming''; in 2001 it was renamed ''The Journal of Logic and Algebraic Pr ...
'', and has received numerous honours. These include a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1967, the
American Mathematical Society The American Mathematical Society (AMS) is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, and serves the national and international community through its publications, meetings, ...
Milestone Award in Automatic Theorem Proving 1985, an AAAI Fellowship 1990, the Herbrand Award for Distinguished Contributions to Automatic Reasoning 1996, and the Association for Logic Programming honorary title ''Founder of Logic Programming'' in 1997. He has received honorary Doctorates from
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest university in Belgium and the oldest university in the Low Countries. In addition to its main camp ...
1988,
Uppsala University Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation. Initially fou ...
1994, and Universidad Politecnica de Madrid 2003. Robinson died in
Portland, Maine Portland is the List of municipalities in Maine, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat, seat of Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 at the 2020 census. The Portland metropolit ...
on 5 August 2016 from a ruptured aneurysm following surgery for pancreatic cancer. In 1994, he received the Humboldt Senior Scientist Award at the request of Wolfgang Bibel, which included a six-month stay at the Department of Computer Science of the Technische Universität Darmstadt.


Selected publications

* * Gabbay, Dov M.; Hogger, Christopher John; Robinson, J.A., eds. (1993-1998)
''Handbook of Logic in Artificial Intelligence and Logic Programming''.
Vols. 1-5, Oxford University Press. * * * *


See also

* — an alternative to the
Quine–McCluskey algorithm The Quine–McCluskey algorithm (QMC), also known as the method of prime implicants, is a method used for minimization of Boolean functions that was developed by Willard V. Quine in 1952 and extended by Edward J. McCluskey in 1956. As a gener ...
for Boolean function minimization


Notes


External links

*
Books
listed by
The MIT Press The MIT Press is the university press of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The MIT Press publishes a number of academic journals and has been a pioneer in the Open Ac ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, John Alan 1930 births 2016 deaths British computer scientists American computer scientists 20th-century British mathematicians 21st-century British mathematicians 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians University of Oregon alumni Princeton University alumni Rice University faculty Syracuse University faculty Formal methods people British expatriates in the United States Fellows of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence American academic journal editors Alumni of the University of Cambridge Mathematicians from New York (state)