Lambert Guillaume Louis Théodore Meertens or L.G.L.T. Meertens (born 10 May 1944, in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

) is a Dutch

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 ...

and professor. , he is a researcher at the Kestrel Institute, a

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computer science research center in

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Stanford Research Park Stanford Research Park (SRP) is a technology park established in 1951 as a joint initiative between Stanford University and the Palo Alto, California, City of Palo Alto. It was the world's first university research park. It has more than 150 com ...

Life and career

As a student at the Ignatius Gymnasium in Amsterdam, Meertens designed a

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

with Kees Koster, a classmate. In the 1960s, Meertens applied affix grammars to the description and composition of music, and obtained a special prize from the jury at the 1968

International Federation for Information Processing The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) is a global organisation for researchers and professionals working in the field of computing to conduct research, develop standards and promote information sharing. Established in 19 ...

(IFIP) Congress in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

for his computer-generated

string quartet The term string quartet refers to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two Violin, violini ...

, Quartet No. 1 in C major for 2 violins, viola and violoncello, based on the first non- context-free affix grammar. The string quartet was published in 1968, as ''Mathematical Centre Report MR 96''. Meertens was one of the editors of the Revised

ALGOL 68 ALGOL 68 (short for ''Algorithmic Language 1968'') is an imperative programming language member of the ALGOL family that was conceived as a successor to the ALGOL 60 language, designed with the goal of a much wider scope of application and ...

Report. He was the originator and one of the designers of the

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 ...

ABC, the incidental predecessor of Python. He was chairman of the Dutch Pacifist Socialist Party (PSP) from 1975 until 1981. He was codesigner of the Bird–Meertens formalism, along with Richard Bird, who also ''gifted'' him the Meertens number. He became involved with developing

international standard An international standard is a technical standard developed by one or more international standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use worldwide. The most prominent such organization is the International O ...

s in programming and informatics, as a member of IFIP Working Group 2.1 on Algorithmic Languages and Calculi, which specified, maintains, and supports the languages

ALGOL 60 ALGOL 60 (short for ''Algorithmic Language 1960'') is a member of the ALGOL family of computer programming languages. It followed on from ALGOL 58 which had introduced code blocks and the begin and end pairs for delimiting them, representing a ...

and

. From 1999 to 2009, he was

chairperson The chair, also chairman, chairwoman, or chairperson, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a Board of directors, board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by ...

. His original work was at the Mathematical Centre (MC), now called Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He co-founded the Pagelet project along with Susan Uskudarli and T. B. Dinesh. After having been Associate Professor of Computer Science at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

in 1982–83, he was part-time Professor of Applied Logic at

Delft University of Technology The Delft University of Technology (TU Delft; ) is the oldest and largest Dutch public university, public Institute of technology, technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. It specializes in engineering, technology, computing, design, a ...

, the Netherlands, from 1984 to 1986 before becoming part-time Professor of Software Technology at

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...

, the Netherlands, where he is now

professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

. , he works as a researcher at the Kestrel Institute in

, California.

Awards

* 2007:

(IFIP) Silver Core * 2015: IFIP Outstanding Service Award

References

External links

* , Kestrel Institute * , Utrecht University
List of Publications
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meertens, Lambert 1944 births Living people Dutch computer scientists Pacifist Socialist Party politicians Party chairs of the Netherlands Scientists from Amsterdam University of Amsterdam alumni Academic staff of Utrecht University