Richard Statman (born September 6, 1946) is an American
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 ...
whose principal research interest is the
theory of computation
In theoretical computer science and mathematics, the theory of computation is the branch that deals with what problems can be solved on a model of computation, using an algorithm, how efficiently they can be solved or to what degree (e.g., app ...
, especially symbolic computation. His research involves
lambda calculus
In mathematical logic, the lambda calculus (also written as ''λ''-calculus) is a formal system for expressing computability, computation based on function Abstraction (computer science), abstraction and function application, application using var ...
,
type theory
In mathematics and theoretical computer science, a type theory is the formal presentation of a specific type system. Type theory is the academic study of type systems.
Some type theories serve as alternatives to set theory as a foundation of ...
, and
combinatory algebra.
Career
In 1974, Statman received his
Ph.D. 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 ...
for his Ph.D. dissertation, supervised by
Georg Kreisel
Georg Kreisel FRS (September 15, 1923 – March 1, 2015) was an Austrian-born mathematical logician who studied and worked in the United Kingdom and America.
Biography
Kreisel was born in Graz and came from a Jewish background; his family s ...
, entitled ''Structural Complexity of Proofs''. His achievements include the proof that the
type inhabitation problem in
simply typed lambda calculus
The simply typed lambda calculus (), a form
of type theory, is a typed interpretation of the lambda calculus with only one type constructor () that builds function types. It is the canonical and simplest example of a typed lambda calculus. The ...
is
PSPACE-complete
In computational complexity theory, a decision problem is PSPACE-complete if it can be solved using an amount of memory that is polynomial in the input length (PSPACE, polynomial space) and if every other problem that can be solved in polynomial sp ...
, lower bounds on simply typed lambda calculus,
logical relations, and intersecton types. He was a co-author of the book ''Lambda Calculus with Types''.
References
External links
Carnegie Mellon profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Statman, Richard
American computer scientists
Living people
1946 births