John Edward Hopcroft (born October 7, 1939) is an American theoretical

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 ...

. His textbooks on theory of computation (also known as the Cinderella book) and

data structure In computer science, a data structure is a data organization and storage format that is usually chosen for Efficiency, efficient Data access, access to data. More precisely, a data structure is a collection of data values, the relationships amo ...

s are regarded as standards in their fields. He is 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". ...

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

, co-director of the Center on Frontiers of Computing Studies at

Peking University Peking University (PKU) is a Public university, public Types of universities and colleges in China#By designated academic emphasis, university in Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with and funded by the Ministry of Education of the Peop ...

, and the director of the John Hopcroft Center for Computer Science at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

Early life and education

Hopcroft received a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

with a major in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

from Seattle University in 1961. He received a

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

in electrical engineering in 1962 and a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

in electrical engineering in 1964, both from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. Hopcroft is the grandson of Jacob Nist, who established the Seattle-Tacoma Box Company in 1889.

Career and honor

He worked for three years at

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 ...

and since then has been at

. In addition to his research work, he is well known for his books on

algorithms In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are used as specifications for per ...

and

formal languages 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 ...

coauthored with Jeffrey Ullman and

Alfred Aho Alfred Vaino Aho (born August 9, 1941) is a Canadian computer scientist best known for his work on programming languages, compilers, and related algorithms, and his textbooks on the art and science of computer programming. Aho was elected into ...

, regarded as classic texts in the field. In 1986 he received the

Turing Award The ACM A. M. Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. It is generally recognized as the highest distinction in the fi ...

(jointly with Robert Tarjan) "for fundamental achievements in the design and analysis of algorithms and data structures." Along with his work with Tarjan on

planar graph In graph theory, a planar graph is a graph (discrete mathematics), graph that can be graph embedding, embedded in the plane (geometry), plane, i.e., it can be drawn on the plane in such a way that its edges intersect only at their endpoints. ...

s he is also known for the Hopcroft–Karp algorithm for finding matchings in bipartite graphs. In 1994 he was inducted as a

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of the

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...

. In 2005 he received the Harry H. Goode Memorial Award "for fundamental contributions to the study of algorithms and their applications in information processing." In 2008 he received the Karl V. Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award "for his vision of and impact on computer science, including co-authoring field-defining texts on theory and algorithms, which continue to influence students 40 years later, advising PhD students who themselves are now contributing greatly to computer science, and providing influential leadership in computer science research and education at the national and international level." Hopcroft was elected a member of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

in 1989 for fundamental contributions to computer algorithms and for authorship of outstanding computer science textbooks. In 1992, Hopcroft was nominated to the National Science Board by

George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...

. In 2005, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...

in Sydney, Australia. In 2009, he received an

honorary doctorate An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...

from Saint Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics. In 2017, Shanghai Jiao Tong University launched a John Hopcroft Center for Computer Science. In 2020, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen opened a Hopcroft Institute for Advanced Information Sciences and designated him as an Einstein professor. Hopcroft is also the co-recipient (with Jeffrey Ullman) of the 2010 IEEE John von Neumann Medal for "laying the foundations for the fields of automata and language theory and many seminal contributions to theoretical computer science."

Awards

* 1986.

* 1989.

Member * 1994. ACM Fellow * 2005. Harry H. Goode Memorial Award * 2008. Karl Karlstrom Outstanding Educator Award * 2010. IEEE John von Neumann Medal * 2016. Friendship Award (China)

Selected publications

; Books * 2017.
Foundations of Data Science
'. (with Avrim Blum and Ravindran Kannan) * 2001. J.E. Hopcroft, Rajeev Motwani, Jeffrey D. Ullman, '' Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation'' Second Edition. Addison-Wesley. * 1983. Alfred V. Aho, J.E. Hopcroft, Jeffrey D. Ullman, ''Data Structures and Algorithms'', Addison-Wesley Series in Computer Science and Information Processing. * 1974. Alfred V. Aho, J.E. Hopcroft, Jeffrey D. Ullman, ''The Design and Analysis of Computer Algorithms'', Addison-Wesley Series in Computer Science and Information Processing. * 1969. '' Formal Languages and Their Relation to Automata''. (with Jeffrey D. Ullman), Addison-Wesley, Reading MA.

References

External links

John E. Hopcroft at Cornell University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hopcroft, John American computer scientists 1939 births Living people Fellows of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Turing Award laureates Cornell University faculty Stanford University alumni Seattle University alumni 20th-century American engineers 21st-century American engineers 20th-century American scientists 21st-century American scientists American computer science educators American textbook writers American electrical engineers 1994 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery