Egon Börger (born 13 May 1946) is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

-born computer scientist based in

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Life and work

Börger was born in

Bad Laer Bad Laer is a municipality and health resort in the district of Osnabrück, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated in the Teutoburg Forest, approx. 20 km south of Osnabrück Osnabrück (; ; archaic English: ''Osnaburg'') is a city in L ...

Westphalia Westphalia (; ; ) is a region of northwestern Germany and one of the three historic parts of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It has an area of and 7.9 million inhabitants. The territory of the region is almost identical with the h ...

Lower Saxony Lower Saxony is a States of Germany, German state (') in Northern Germany, northwestern Germany. It is the second-largest state by land area, with , and fourth-largest in population (8 million in 2021) among the 16 ' of the Germany, Federal Re ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Between 1965 and 1971 he studied at the Sorbonne,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

(

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Université Catholique de Louvain UCLouvain (or Université catholique de Louvain , French for Catholic University of Louvain, officially in English the University of Louvain) is Belgium's largest French-speaking university and one of the oldest in Europe (originally establishe ...

, Institut Supérieur de Philosophie de Louvain and

University of Münster The University of Münster (, until 2023 , WWU) is a public research university located in the city of Münster, North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. With more than 43,000 students and over 120 fields of study in 15 departments, it is Germany's ...

(Germany). Between 1972 and 1976, he was at the Università di Salerno in Italy, where he taught the first courses in the newborn Computer Science Degree. Since 1985 he has held a Chair in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

at the

University of Pisa The University of Pisa (, UniPi) is a public university, public research university in Pisa, Italy. Founded in 1343, it is one of the oldest universities in Europe. Together with Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and Sant'Anna School of Advanced S ...

, Italy. Since September 2010, he has been an elected member of the

Academia Europaea The Academia Europaea is a pan-European Academy of humanities, letters, law, and sciences. The Academia was founded in 1988 as a functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. It acts as co-ordinator of Europe ...

. Egon Börger is a pioneer of applying logical methods in computer science. He is co-founder of the international conference series CSL. He is also one of the founders of the

Abstract State Machines In computer science, an abstract state machine (ASM) is a state machine operating on states that are arbitrary data structures (structure in the sense of mathematical logic, that is a nonempty set together with a number of functions ( operations ...

(ASM)

formal method Formal, formality, informal or informality imply the complying with, or not complying with, some set of requirements ( forms, in Ancient Greek). They may refer to: Dress code and events * Formal wear, attire for formal events * Semi-formal att ...

for accurate and controlled design and analysis of computer-based systems and cofounder of the series of international ASM workshops, which in 2008 merged with the regular meetings of the B and

Z User Group The Z User Group (ZUG) was established in 1992 to promote use and development of the Z notation, a formal specification language for the description of and reasoning about computer-based systems. It was formally constituted on 14 December 1992 du ...

s to form the international ABZ conference. Börger contributed to the theoretical foundations of the method and initiated its industrial applications in a variety of fields, in particular

programming languages A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Programming languages are described in terms of their syntax (form) and semantics (meaning), usually defined by a formal language. Languages usually provide features ...

System architecture A system architecture is the conceptual model that defines the structure, behavior, and views of a system. An architecture description is a formal description and representation of a system, organized in a way that supports reasoning about the s ...

, requirements and

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

(re-)engineering,

control systems A control system manages, commands, directs, or regulates the behavior of other devices or systems using control loops. It can range from a single home heating controller using a thermostat controlling a domestic boiler to large industrial co ...

protocols Protocol may refer to: Sociology and politics * Protocol (politics), a formal agreement between nation states * Protocol (diplomacy), the etiquette of diplomacy and affairs of state * Etiquette, a code of personal behavior Science and technology ...

web services A web service (WS) is either: * a service offered by an electronic device to another electronic device, communicating with each other via the Internet, or * a server running on a computer device, listening for requests at a particular port over a n ...

. To this date, he is one of the leading scientists in ASM-based modeling and verification technology, which he has crucially shaped by his activities. In 2007, he received the

Humboldt Research Award The Humboldt Research Award (), also known informally as the Humboldt Prize, is an award given by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany to internationally renowned scientists and scholars who work outside of Germany in recognition of t ...

.Humboldt foundation
Germany.

Festschrift In academia, a ''Festschrift'' (; plural, ''Festschriften'' ) is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during their lifetime. It generally takes the form of an edited volume, containing contributions from the h ...

s were produced for Börger's 60th and 75th birthdays.

Selected publications

* Egon Börger and Robert Stärk,
Abstract State Machines: A Method for High-Level System Design and Analysis
',

Springer-Verlag Springer Science+Business Media, commonly known as Springer, is a German multinational publishing company of books, e-books and peer-reviewed journals in science, humanities, technical and medical (STM) publishing. Originally founded in 1842 in ...

, 2003. () * Egon Börger Computability, Complexity, Logic (North-Holland, Amsterdam 1989, translated from the German original from 1985, Italian Translation Bollati-Borighieri 1989) * Egon Börger, The Classical Decision Problem (co-authored by E.Graedel and Y.Gurevich), Springer-Verlag 1997, , 2nd Edition as "Universitext", Springer-Verlag 2001, * Egon Börger, Java and the Java Virtual Machine: Definition, Verification, Validation (co-authored by R. Staerk and J. Schmid), Springer-Verlag , 2001 * Egon Börger and Alexander Raschke, ''Modeling Companion for Software Pratitioners'',

Springer Springer or springers may refer to: Publishers * Springer Science+Business Media, aka Springer International Publishing, a worldwide publishing group founded in 1842 in Germany formerly known as Springer-Verlag. ** Springer Nature, a multinationa ...

, 2018. (, )

References

External links

Egon Börger home page

Curriculum Vitae
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Borger, Egon 1946 births Living people People from Osnabrück (district) University of Paris alumni Université catholique de Louvain alumni University of Münster alumni German computer scientists German emigrants to Italy Italian computer scientists Academic staff of the University of Pisa Formal methods people Computer science writers Members of Academia Europaea 20th-century Italian scientists 21st-century Italian scientists German expatriates in France