Alain Colmerauer (24 January 1941 – 12 May 2017) was a French

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 at

Aix-Marseille University Aix-Marseille University (AMU; ; formally incorporated as ) is a Public university, public research university located in the Provence region of southern France. It was founded in 1409 when Louis II of Anjou, List of rulers of Provence, Count of ...

, and the creator of 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 ...

language

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 ...

Early life

Alain Colmerauer was born on 24 January 1941 in

Carcassonne Carcassonne is a French defensive wall, fortified city in the Departments of France, department of Aude, Regions of France, region of Occitania (administrative region), Occitania. It is the prefectures in France, prefecture of the department. ...

. He graduated from the

Grenoble Institute of Technology The Grenoble Institute of Technology (Grenoble INP) (''Institut polytechnique de Grenoble'' , ''Groupe Grenoble INP'' and before INPG) is a French technological university system consisting of eight engineering and management schools. Grenoble I ...

, and he earned a PhD from the Ensimag in

Grenoble Grenoble ( ; ; or ; or ) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of the Isère Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region ...

Career

Colmerauer spent 1967–1970 as assistant professor at the

University of Montreal A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...

, where he created Q-Systems, one of the earliest linguistic formalisms used in the development of the TAUM-METEO

machine translation Machine translation is use of computational techniques to translate text or speech from one language to another, including the contextual, idiomatic and pragmatic nuances of both languages. Early approaches were mostly rule-based or statisti ...

prototype. Developing Prolog III in 1984, he was one of the main founders of the field of

constraint logic programming Constraint logic programming is a form of constraint programming, in which logic programming is extended to include concepts from constraint satisfaction. A constraint logic program is a logic program that contains constraints in the body of claus ...

. Colmerauer became an associate professor at

in Luminy in 1970. He was promoted to full professor in 1979. From 1993 to 1995, he was head of the Laboratoire d'Informatique de Marseille (LIM), a joint laboratory of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, the Université de Provence and the Université de la Méditerranée. Despite retiring as emeritus professor in 2006, he remained a member of the artificial intelligence taskforce in Luminy. Colmerauer won an award from the regional council of

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (commonly shortened to PACA), also known as Région Sud, is one of the eighteen Regions of France, administrative regions of France, located at the far southeastern point of the Metropolitan France, mainland. The main P ...

, and in 1985 the Michel Monpetit Award, from the

French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (, ) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific method, scientific research. It was at the forefron ...

. In 1986, he was made a knight of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

by the French government. He became Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence in 1991, and in 1997 the Association for Logic Programming bestowed upon him and fourteen other select researchers the title of ''Founder of Logic Programming''. He then received the Association for Constraint Programming's Research Excellence Award in 2008. He was also a correspondent of the

in the area of mathematics.

Death

Colmerauer died on 12 May 2017. — According to this obituary, Alain Colmerauer died on 15 May.

The ALP Alain Colmerauer Prize

The ''ALP Alain Colmerauer Prize'' (in short: ''Alain Colmerauer Prize'') is organized by the Association for Logic Programming. The Prize is given for recent accomplishments and practical advances in Prolog-inspired computing, understood in a broad sense, where foundational, technological, and practical contributions are eligible with proven evidence or potential for the future development of Logic Programming. The award of the inaugural edition of the Prize in 2022, in cooperation with the Prolog Heritage Association, was a highlight of the Year of Prolog celebrating 50 years of Prolog and logic programming.

References

External links

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Alain Colmerauer, L'aventure Prolog (Movie)

Prolog Day (Movie)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Colmerauer, Alain French computer scientists Programming language designers 1941 births 2017 deaths Members of the French Academy of Sciences Knights of the Legion of Honour Academic staff of the Université de Montréal Academic staff of Aix-Marseille University Grenoble Institute of Technology alumni People from Carcassonne 20th-century French scientists 21st-century French scientists 20th-century French engineers 21st-century French engineers Scientists from Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur