Kurt Mehlhorn (born 29 August 1949) is a German
theoretical computer scientist. He has been a vice president of the
Max Planck Society
The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. Founded in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, it was renamed to the M ...
and is director of the
Max Planck Institute for Computer Science.
Education and career
Mehlhorn graduated in 1971 from the
Technical University of Munich
The Technical University of Munich (TUM or TU Munich; ) is a public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. It specializes in engineering, technology, medicine, and applied and natural sciences.
Established in 1868 by King Ludwig II ...
, where he studied computer science and mathematics, and earned his Ph.D. in 1974 from
Cornell University
Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...
under the supervision of
Robert Constable. Since 1975 he has been on the faculty of
Saarland University
Saarland University (, ) is a public research university located in Saarbrücken, the capital of the German state of Saarland. It was founded in 1948 in Homburg in co-operation with France and is organized in six faculties that cover all major ...
in
Saarbrücken
Saarbrücken (; Rhenish Franconian: ''Sabrigge'' ; ; ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of cities and towns in Germany, city of the state of Saarland, Germany. Saarbrücken has 181,959 inhabitants and is Saarland's administrative, commerci ...
, Germany, where he was chair of the computer science department from 1976 to 1978 and again from 1987 to 1989. Since 1990 has been the director of the Max Planck Institute for Computer Science, also in Saarbrücken. He has been on the editorial boards of ten journals, a trustee of the
International Computer Science Institute
The International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) is an independent, non-profit research organization located in Berkeley, California, United States. Since its founding in 1988, ICSI has maintained an affiliation agreement with the University ...
in
Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...
, and a member of the board of governors of
Jacobs University Bremen. He also served on the Engineering and Computer Science jury for the
Infosys Prize
The Infosys Prize is an annual award granted to scientists, researchers, engineers and social scientists of Indian origin (not necessarily born in India) by the Infosys Science Foundation and ranks among the highest monetary awards for researc ...
from 2009 to 2011.
Awards and honors
He won the
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize in 1986, the
Gay-Lussac-Humboldt-Prize in 1989, the Karl Heinz Beckurts Award in 1994, the
Konrad Zuse Medal in 1995, the
EATCS Award
The European Association for Theoretical Computer Science (EATCS) is an international organization with a European focus, founded in 1972. Its aim is to facilitate the exchange of ideas and results among theoretical computer scientists as well as ...
in 2010,
[Bulletin of the EATCS, nr. 100, pp. 7–8.] and the
Paris Kanellakis Award The Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award is granted yearly by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) to honor "specific theoretical accomplishments that have had a significant and demonstrable effect on the practice of computing". It wa ...
in 2010. He was named a 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 ...
in 1995,
Fellow
A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...
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 ...
in 1999, a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences in 2001, a member of the
German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (), in short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded on 1 January 1652, based on academic models in Italy, it was originally named the ''Academi ...
in 2004, a foreign 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 ...
in 2014, and a foreign member of the
National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the ...
in 2014. He has received honorary doctorates from the
Otto von Guericke University of Magdeburg in 2002 and the
University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a Public university, public research university located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to uptown Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also op ...
in 2006.
[Mehlhorn's CV](_blank)
[.]ACM Fellow
ACM Fellowship is an award and fellowship that recognises outstanding members of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The title of ACM Fellow
A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals ...
br>citation to Mehlhorn
for "important contributions in complexity theory and in the design, analysis, and practice of combinatorial and geometric algorithms." He is the 2014 winner of the Erasmus Medal 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 ...
.
Research
Mehlhorn is the author of several books and over 250 scientific publications,
[.] which include fundamental contributions to
data structures
In computer science, a data structure is a data organization and storage format that is usually chosen for efficient access to data. More precisely, a data structure is a collection of data values, the relationships among them, and the functi ...
,
computational geometry,
computer algebra
In mathematics and computer science, computer algebra, also called symbolic computation or algebraic computation, is a scientific area that refers to the study and development of algorithms and software for manipulating expression (mathematics), ...
,
parallel computing
Parallel computing is a type of computing, computation in which many calculations or Process (computing), processes are carried out simultaneously. Large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which can then be solved at the same time. ...
,
VLSI design,
computational complexity
In computer science, the computational complexity or simply complexity of an algorithm is the amount of resources required to run it. Particular focus is given to computation time (generally measured by the number of needed elementary operations ...
,
combinatorial optimization
Combinatorial optimization is a subfield of mathematical optimization that consists of finding an optimal object from a finite set of objects, where the set of feasible solutions is discrete or can be reduced to a discrete set. Typical combina ...
, and
graph algorithms.
Mehlhorn has been an important figure in the development of
algorithm engineering and is one of the developers of ''LEDA'', the
Library of Efficient Data types and Algorithms.
Mehlhorn has played an important role in the establishment of several research centres for computer science in Germany. He was the driving force
behind the establishment of a
Max Planck Institute
The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes. Founded in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society, it was renamed to the M ...
for Computer Science in Germany, the
Max Planck Institute for Computer Science (MPII). Mehlhorn was managing director of the institute and headed the department of algorithms and complexity. He also initiated
the research center for computer science at
Dagstuhl and the
European Symposium on Algorithms
The European Symposium on Algorithms (ESA) is an international conference covering the field of algorithms. It has been held annually since 1993, typically in early Autumn in a different European location each year. Like most theoretical computer ...
.
Books
*. Revised and translated as ''Data Structures and Algorithms'', Springer-Verlag, 1984.
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Selected publications
*.
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*. Also available a
Princeton TR-310-91img title="Lock-green"; style="text-decoration: none; height:150px;float: left; padding: 0px 3px 0px 0px;"src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg" >.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mehlhorn, Kurt
1949 births
Living people
German computer scientists
Researchers in geometric algorithms
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize winners
Academic staff of Saarland University
Max Planck Institute for Informatics
Technical University of Munich alumni
Cornell University alumni
Members of Academia Europaea
1999 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery
Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
Max Planck Society people