Michael Ian Shamos (born April 21, 1947) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

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 ...

, attorney, book

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

, journal editor, consultant and company director. He is (with

Franco P. Preparata Franco P. Preparata is a computer scientist, the An Wang Professor, Emeritus, of Computer Science at Brown University. He is best known for his 1985 book "Computational Geometry: An Introduction" into which he blended salient parts of M. I. ...

) the author of ''Computational Geometry'' (Springer-Verlag, 1985), which was for many years the standard textbook in computational geometry, and is known for the Shamos–Hoey

sweep line algorithm In computational geometry, a sweep line algorithm or plane sweep algorithm is an algorithmic paradigm that uses a conceptual ''sweep line'' or ''sweep surface'' to solve various problems in Euclidean space. It is one of the key techniques in compu ...

for line segment intersection detection and for the

rotating calipers In computational geometry, the method of rotating calipers is an algorithm design technique that can be used to solve optimization problems including finding the width or diameter of a set of points. The method is so named because the idea is an ...

technique for finding the width and

diameter In geometry, a diameter of a circle is any straight line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose endpoints lie on the circle. It can also be defined as the longest chord of the circle. Both definitions are also valid fo ...

of a geometric figure. His publications also include works on

electronic voting Electronic voting (also known as e-voting) is voting that uses electronic means to either aid or take care of casting and counting ballots. Depending on the particular implementation, e-voting may use standalone ''electronic voting machines'' ( ...

, the game of

billiards Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as . There are three major subdivisions ...

, and

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...

law in the digital age. He was a

fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

Sigma Xi Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society () is a highly prestigious, non-profit honor society for scientists and engineers. Sigma Xi was founded at Cornell University by a junior faculty member and a small group of graduate students in 1886 ...

(1974–83), had an IBM Fellowship at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...

(1974–75), was

SIAM Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

National Lecturer (1977–78), distinguished lecturer in computer science at the

University of Rochester The University of Rochester (U of R, UR, or U of Rochester) is a private university, private research university in Rochester, New York. The university grants Undergraduate education, undergraduate and graduate degrees, including Doctorate, do ...

(1978), visited

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...

(1979), and belonged to the

Duquesne University Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit ( or ; Duquesne University or Duquesne) is a private Catholic research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Founded by members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit , image = Holy Gh ...

Law Review (1980–81). He won the first annual Black & White Scotch Achiever's Award in 1991 for contributions to bagpipe musicography, and the Industry Service Award of the Billiard and Bowling Institute of America, 1996, for contributions to billiard history. Since 2001 he is a Billiard Worldcup Association official referee. He has been editor in chief of the ''Journal of Privacy Technology'' (2003–2006), a member of the editorial boards of ''Electronic Commerce Research Journal'' and the ''Pittsburgh Journal of Technology, Law and Policy'', and a contributing editor of ''Billiards Digest'' magazine. Shamos is the author of ''The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Billiards'' (Lyons, 1999) among other related works, and is the curator of the Billiards Museum and Archive. Michael Shamos is the Director of the MS in Artificial Intelligence and Innovation program at Carnegie Mellon University. Before that, he was the Director of the MS in IT eBusiness Technology program.

Education

Shamos received a PhD in 1978 at

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

under David P. Dobkin.

References

Resume of Michael Ian Shamos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shamos, Michael Ian 1947 births Living people 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians Researchers in geometric algorithms Voting theorists University of Rochester faculty Duquesne University faculty Cue sports writers and broadcasters