Maurice Paul Nivat (21 December 1937 – 21 September 2017) was a French
computer scientist
A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science.
Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...
. His research in
computer science spanned the areas of
formal languages,
programming language semantics
In programming language theory, semantics is the rigorous mathematical study of the meaning of programming languages. Semantics assigns computational meaning to valid strings in a programming language syntax.
Semantics describes the processe ...
, and
discrete geometry. A 2006 citation for an honorary
doctorate (Ph.D.) called Nivat one of the fathers of
theoretical computer science.
[
] He was a
professor at the
University Paris Diderot until 2001.
Early life and education
Nivat was born in
Clermont-Ferrand, France. His parents were high-school teachers; his father taught languages while his mother taught mathematics. His sister,
Aline, became a notable mathematician.
[
]
In 1954, Nivat moved with his family to Paris.
Nivat was admitted to the
École Normale Supérieure in 1956, but began working at the Blaise Pascal Institute of the
French National Centre for Scientific Research, a newly established computing laboratory, in 1959.
He returned to study mathematics in 1961 under the supervision of
Marcel-Paul SchĂĽtzenberger.
His 1967 thesis was entitled ''Transductions des langages de Chomsky'' ("
Transductions of
Chomsky Languages").
Career
In 1969, Nivat became a professor at
Paris Diderot University and taught until 2002. He remained as professor emeritus until his death in 2017.
He was involved in many endeavours in theoretical computer science in Europe: he was one of the founders of the
European Association for Theoretical Computer Science
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 ...
(EATCS) in 1972 and organized the first
International Colloquium on Automata, Languages and Programming (ICALP) conference in the same year at
French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation (INRIA, then called IRIA) in Paris. In 1975, he was a founder of the journal ''
Theoretical Computer Science''. He was editor-in-chief of the journal for over 25 years.
He was a member of the
International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP)
IFIP Working Group 2.1 IFIP Working Group 2.1 on Algorithmic Languages and Calculi is a working group of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP).
IFIP WG 2.1 was formed as the body responsible for the continued support and maintenance of the progra ...
on Algorithmic Languages and Calculi, which
specified, supports, and maintains the
programming 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 k ...
and
ALGOL 68.
Awards
Since 1983, Nivat was a corresponding member of the
French Academy of Sciences
The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV of France, Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific me ...
.
Nivat was also an officer of both the
Legion d'honneur and the
Ordre national du MĂ©rite, and a commander of the
Ordre des Palmes Académiques in France. Nivat won the
EATCS award in 2002. He received honorary doctorates from the
University of Bologna in 1997
[
] and the
University of Quebec at Montreal in 2006.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nivat, Maurice
1937 births
2017 deaths
Scientists from Clermont-Ferrand
Members of the French Academy of Sciences
Grenoble Alpes University alumni
French computer scientists
Commandeurs of the Ordre des Palmes Académiques
Officers of the Ordre national du MĂ©rite