Michael Fellows
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Michael Ralph Fellows AC HFRSNZ MAE (born June 15, 1952 in
Upland, California Upland is a city in San Bernardino County, California, United States, on the border with neighboring Los Angeles County. The municipality is located at an elevation of . As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population ...
) is a
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 the Elite Professor of Computer Science in the Department of Informatics at the
University of Bergen The University of Bergen () is a public university, public research university in Bergen, Norway. As of 2021, the university had over 4,000 employees and 19,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 1946 consolidating several sci ...
, Norway as of January 2016.


Biography

Fellows received his BA in mathematics from
Sonoma State University Sonoma State University (SSU, Sonoma State, or Sonoma) is a public university in Sonoma County, California, United States. It is part of the California State University system. Sonoma State offers 92 bachelor's degree programs, 19 master's de ...
, and at the
University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...
(UCSD) his M.A. in mathematics in 1982 and in 1985 his Ph.D. in computer science with the dissertation ''Encoding Graphs in Graphs''. Until January 2016, Fellows was professor at
Charles Darwin University Charles Darwin University (CDU) is an Australian public university with two campuses in Darwin and six satellite campuses in metropolitan and regional areas of the Northern Territory. It was established in 2003 after the merger of Northern Ter ...
, Australia, and Director of the Parameterized Complexity Research Unit (PCRU). He has taught in the United States, Canada, New Zealand and Australia, as well as in the UK and Europe; and has given invited talks around the world. In 2018, Fellows was awarded membership in
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 2016, he received Australia's highest civilian honour, the Order of Australia, Companion to the Queen. In 2014 Fellows became one of ten inaugural fellows 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 ...
. Also in 2014, he was named an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand (the first computer scientist to receive this honor). In 2007, Fellows was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Research Award. His German host was Rolf Niedermeier and Mike spent part of 2007 and most of 2008 at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität in
Jena Jena (; ) is a List of cities and towns in Germany, city in Germany and the second largest city in Thuringia. Together with the nearby cities of Erfurt and Weimar, it forms the central metropolitan area of Thuringia with approximately 500,000 in ...
, Germany, working with Niedermeier. Also in 2007, Mike became one of the first Fellows of the
Institute of Advanced Study (Durham) The Institute of Advanced Study (IAS) is an interdisciplinary research centre of Durham University. The IAS - set up to mark Durham's 175th anniversary - is intended to attract scholars and public figures from across the world to collaborate o ...
, UK and a Fellow of Grey College at the
University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charter in 1837. It was the first recognised university to ...
. He was also awarded an Australian Research Council Professorial Fellowship for five years, beginning 2010. He is an Area Editor for the ''
Journal of Computer and System Sciences The ''Journal of Computer and System Sciences'' (JCSS) is a peer-reviewed scientific journal in the field of computer science. ''JCSS'' is published by Elsevier, and it was started in 1967. Many influential scientific articles have been published ...
'' since 2004, and Advising Editor for the special Section on Parameterized Complexity in the same journal. He is Associate Editor for ''
ACM Transactions on Algorithms ''ACM Transactions on Algorithms'' (''TALG'') is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the field of algorithms. It was established in 2005 and is published by the Association for Computing Machinery. The editor-in-chief is Edith Coh ...
''. In 2008 he was Guest Editor for a special double issue of ''
The Computer Journal ''The Computer Journal'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering computer science and information systems. Established in 1958, it is one of the oldest computer science research journals. It is published by Oxford University Press on behal ...
'' containing 15 surveys on parameterized complexity. He is also Guest Editor (with others) for a Special Issue on Parameterized Complexity in the ''Journal of Combinatorial Optimization'' to be published in 2010. He is a member of the Steering Committee for the conference series ''International Workshop on Parameterized and Exact Computation,'' proceedings published by Springer in Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Michael Fellows is co-author of ''Computer Science Unplugged!'
www.csunplugged.org
book and materials, which bring computational thinking activities to youth and adults and have been translated into over 25 languages. He is known for his innovative science communication. He is an organizer of the Creative Mathematical Sciences Communication (CMSC) conference series. An avid interest in politics was inspired by his mother Betty, long a leader in the California League of Women Voters, and a love of literature and movies is shared with his son, Max. Fellows wrote a series of passion plays about mathematics which were presented at the Victoria Fringe Festival and at NCTM at Asilimar in 1999. In 1999, he married Frances Novak Rosamond, also a scientist, who shares his love of mathematics and adventure.


Honors

Fellows is recognized as one of the founders of
parameterized complexity In computer science, parameterized complexity is a branch of computational complexity theory that focuses on classifying computational problems according to their inherent difficulty with respect to ''multiple'' parameters of the input or output. ...
, a
complexity Complexity characterizes the behavior of a system or model whose components interact in multiple ways and follow local rules, leading to non-linearity, randomness, collective dynamics, hierarchy, and emergence. The term is generally used to c ...
framework that uses structure in hard problems for the design and analysis 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 for their solution. Parameterized complexity has strong connections to algorithmic engineering, and is increasingly important in fields as diverse as
Artificial Intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
,
Cognitive Science Cognitive science is the interdisciplinary, scientific study of the mind and its processes. It examines the nature, the tasks, and the functions of cognition (in a broad sense). Mental faculties of concern to cognitive scientists include percep ...
, and
Bioinformatics Bioinformatics () is an interdisciplinary field of science that develops methods and Bioinformatics software, software tools for understanding biological data, especially when the data sets are large and complex. Bioinformatics uses biology, ...
. In 2018, he received the Norwegian Research Council Toppforsk Award for his project, ''Parameterized Complexity for Practical Computing''. The funding scheme supports ''scientific quality at the forefront of international research; boldness in scientific thinking and innovation''. Dagstuhl Seminar 12241 ''Data Reduction and Problem Kernels'' June 10 – 15, 2012 was the occasion to honour Michael R. Fellows on the Occasion of His 60th Birthday. He was presented with a Springer festschrift: ''The Multivariate Algorithmic Revolution and Beyond - Essays Dedicated Michael R. Fellows on the Occasion of His 60th Birthday.'' Editors: Hans L. Bodlaender and Rod Downey and Fedor V. Fomin and Daniel Marx. Springer LNCS 7370, DOI 10.1007/978-3- 642-30891-8_8), 2012. ''1) Academy Europaea'' (MAE) 2018. The Academia Europaea is an independent learned society and European Union's Academy of Humanities and Sciences. On the initiative of Royal Society and other National Academies in Europe, the Academia was founded in 1988 as the functioning Europe-wide Academy that encompasses all fields of scholarly inquiry. 2) ''Order of Australia, Companion to the Queen'' (AC) 2016. This is Australia's highest civilian honour, similar to UK knighthood. To appreciate this requires a trip to Wikipedia: Of the approximately 400 over the 50 years of the Australian national honours system, over all walks of life (politicians, sports stars, movie stars...) there have been approximately 60 AC academics, of which there are approximately 30 scientists, and of those, 6 Nobel Laureates. I am the first computer scientist to receive this honour. 3) ''Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand (HFRSNZ) 2014.'' He is the second person whose primary research area is algorithms to receive this honor. Honorary Fellows include Einstein, Bohr, Curie, Darwin, Fleming, Priestley, Richter, Rutherford, altogether 230 since 1870. 4) ''EATCS Fellow 2014''. Mike has been conferred one of the inaugural first 10 EATCS Fellows for "his role in founding the field of parameterized complexity theory, which has become a major subfield of research in theoretical computer science, and for being a leader in computer science education". 5) ''EATCS-NERODE Prize 2014''. This award at ALGO/ESA and is for a series of papers on how to establish lower bounds on kernelization. The two papers and prize winners are: ''On problems without polynomial kernels'', Hans Bodlaender, Rodney Downey, Michael Fellows, Danny Hermelin. Journal of Computer and System Sciences 2009. ''Infeasibility of instance compression and succinct PCPs for NP'', Lance Fortnow, Rahul Santhanam, same journal 2011. 6) ''ABZ International Medal of Honor for Fundamental Contributions to Computer Science Education''. This award through ETH-Zurich is for Mike's outreach to kids and the community. Fellows wrote ''Computer Science Unplugged!'' (www.csunplugged.org with New Zealand colleagues Tim Bell (University of Canterbury, NZ) and Ian Witten (Otago University, NZ). activities are the basis of workshops sponsored by Google across the world. They are used in codeweek.au and in curriculum in UK. The book has been translated into 19 languages. It is a global grass-roots movement. Mike and Frances Rosamond give workshops to Aboriginal schools in Australia, India and around the world. Professor Fellow says, “The activities are based on modern research in computer science and mathematics. These materials can be used to make early education more exciting and engaging,” Woven through Computer Science Unplugged is the importance of story: that presenting math and computing topics through story-telling and drama can captivate children and adults alike, and provides a whole new level of engagement. Mike's activities are about thinking outside the box, whether sharing the unknowns of computer science and mathematics with elementary school children or running a mathematics event in a park.” Mike has been an Australian professorial fellow at the University of Newcastle, Australia, and at Charles Darwin University, Australia. He is visiting professor at Royal Holloway University of London. In 2006, he was an inaugural Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Study, Durham University, and at that time a Best Fellow of Grey College. In 2007, Mike received an Alexander von Humboldt Research Award. He collaborates extensively around the world.


Computer Science Unplugged!

Fellow's books ''Computer Science Unplugged!'' written with Tim Bell and Ian Witten, and ''This is MEGA-Mathematics!'', with Nancy Casey convey sophisticated concepts such as intractability,
sorting network In computer science, comparator networks are abstract devices built up of a fixed number of "wires", carrying values, and comparator modules that connect pairs of wires, swapping the values on the wires if they are not in a desired order. Such ne ...
s, and
cryptography Cryptography, or cryptology (from "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logy, -logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of Adversary (cryptography), ...
. They have won several science popularization awards, and been translated into languages including Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, and German, with more translations underway. ''Unplugged!'' was part of the famous British Faraday Christmas Lectures in 2008, which was given by Professor Christopher M. Bishop of UK Microsoft Research.


Passion plays about mathematics

Fellows is also the author of several passion plays about mathematics, with mathematical proofs enacted on-stage, which were performed at the Fringe Theatre in British Columbia.


Publications

He has published five books and over 150 scientific articlesMichael Fellows, ACM Authors
/ref> Books and dissertation: * 1985. ''Encoding Graphs in Graphs''. Dissertation * 1990. ''Constructive Complexity'', with Karl Abrahamson and Michael A. Langston * 1992. ''This is MEGA-Mathematics'', with Nancy Casey * 1992. ''Parameterized computational feasibility'', with Rod G. Downey * 2002. ''Computer Science Unplugged!'', with Tim Bell and Ian Witten * 2013. ''Fundamentals of Parameterized Complexity'', with Rod G. Downey


References


External links

*

website at Charles Darwin University
Michael Fellows
website at the University of Bergen {{DEFAULTSORT:Fellows, Michael 1952 births Living people University of California, San Diego alumni American theoretical computer scientists Companions of the Order of Australia