John Rischard Rice (June 6, 1934 – January 7, 2024) was an American mathematician and computer scientist. He was the W. Brooks Fortune Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Computer Science and a professor of mathematics (by courtesy) at

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

. He specialized in numerical computing, founded the ''

ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software ''ACM Transactions on Mathematical Software'' (''TOMS'') is a quarterly scientific journal that aims to disseminate the latest findings of note in the field of numeric, symbolic, algebraic, and geometric computing applications. The journal publish ...

'' and was the author of more than 20 books and approximately 300 research articles.Faculty profile
, Purdue University, retrieved 2011-01-29...

Biography

Rice was born on June 6, 1934, in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...

, and grew up in small towns in Oklahoma. As a teenager, his father was assigned to

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; ,) is the capital city of Ethiopia, as well as the regional state of Oromia. With an estimated population of 2,739,551 inhabitants as of the 2007 census, it is the largest city in the country and the List of cities in Africa b ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

, where he lived for three years. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in mathematics from

Oklahoma State University Oklahoma State University (informally Oklahoma State or OSU) is a public land-grant research university in Stillwater, Oklahoma, United States. The university was established in 1890 under the legislation of the Morrill Act. Originally known ...

in 1954 and 1956; while studying there, he spent his summers in southern California, working in the aerospace industry. He then moved to the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

, where he earned a Ph.D. in 1959 under the supervision of Arthur Erdélyi; his dissertation concerned

approximation theory In mathematics, approximation theory is concerned with how function (mathematics), functions can best be approximation, approximated with simpler functions, and with quantitative property, quantitatively characterization (mathematics), characteri ...

. After taking a one-year postdoctoral position at the

National Bureau of Standards The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into physical sc ...

, he became a researcher for

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

. In 1964 he left GM and joined the recently founded computer science department at Purdue, which he later headed from 1983 to 1996 Rice organized the first Symposium on Mathematical Software at

in 1970, which produced the recommendation to start a journal for the field. This led to the founding of ''

'' (''TOMS'') in 1975, of which Rice would be editor-in-chief until 1993. He was chair of the

Computing Research Association The Computing Research Association (CRA) is a 501(c)3 non-profit association of North American academic departments of computer science, computer engineering, and related fields; laboratories and centers in industry, government, and academia enga ...

from 1991 to 1993.Short curriculum vitae
from Rice's Purdue web site, retrieved 2011-01-29. Rice died at home on January 7, 2024, at the age of 89.

Research

Rice showed an early interest in computing, publishing a paper titled "Electronic Brains" as a college sophomore. Although his early research was on the mathematics of approximation theory, he spent most of his career working in the

analysis of algorithms In computer science, the analysis of algorithms is the process of finding the computational complexity of algorithms—the amount of time, storage, or other resources needed to execute them. Usually, this involves determining a function that r ...

for solving numerical problems, and particularly on the solution of

elliptic partial differential equation In mathematics, an elliptic partial differential equation is a type of partial differential equation (PDE). In mathematical modeling, elliptic PDEs are frequently used to model steady states, unlike parabolic PDE and hyperbolic PDE which gene ...

Books

Rice's ''Introduction to Computer Science'' (with J. K. Rice, published by Holt, Rinehart, and Winston in 1969) was the "leading textbook of the day" and emphasized general principles of

algorithm In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm () is a finite sequence of Rigour#Mathematics, mathematically rigorous instructions, typically used to solve a class of specific Computational problem, problems or to perform a computation. Algo ...

s 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 rather than specific

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Programming languages are described in terms of their Syntax (programming languages), syntax (form) and semantics (computer science), semantics (meaning), usually def ...

s, the focus of previous introductory CS texts. It was translated into three other languages.Complete publication list
from Rice's Purdue web site, retrieved 2011-01-29. Rice's other books include: *''Solving Elliptic Problems with ELLPACK'' (Springer-Verlag, 1985) *''Mathematical Aspects of Scientific Software'' (Springer-Verlag, 1988) *''Expert Systems for Scientific Computing'' (North Holland, 1992) *''Enabling Technologies for Computational Science'' (Kluwer, 2000)

Awards and honors

Rice was named the Brooks Fortune Professor in 1989. In 1994, he 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 ...

for his "for leadership in founding the field of mathematical software and for fundamental contributions to its content". He is also a

Fellow of the AAAS Fellowship of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (FAAAS) is an honor accorded by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) to distinguished persons who are members of the Association. Fellows are elected ...

and a Fellow 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 ...

References

External links