Robin Milner

Arthur John Robin Gorell Milner FRS FRSE ( born January 13, 1934 in Yealmpton near Plymouth, † March 20, 2010 in Cambridge ) was a British professor of computer science and Turing award winner.

Biography

Milner was the son of infantry officer John Theodore Milner and Muriel Emily Milner. He spent his childhood in various locations in England, Scotland and Wales. At times, he attended the Selwyn House School, and from 1947 on a scholarship at Eton College (including with later Lord Richard Layard ). He then completed from 1952 to 1954 his military service in the Royal Engineers in the Suez Canal, where he reached the rank of second lieutenant, and then studied with another scholarship mathematics and later philosophy at King's College, University of Cambridge. In 1957 he received his B. A. and worked in London, first in several part-time jobs, a year later as a school teacher in mathematics at St Marylebone Grammar School and finally in 1960 as a programmer at Ferranti, where he took care of the library from the Sirius computer.

In 1963 he was appointed a lecturer in mathematics and computer science at the City University London, where it was particularly aroused by the work of Christopher Strachey his interest in artificial intelligence. This was followed by research at the University of Wales, Swansea (1968 to 1971), Stanford University (1971 to 1973) and from 1973 the University of Edinburgh, where he 1984 ( after a visiting professor at the University of Aarhus, from 1979 to 1980 ) 1984 Full Professor was from 1986 to 1989 and founding director of the Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science was. He strengthened there especially the anchoring of theoretical computer science in teaching. In 1995 he returned to the University of Cambridge, where he from 1996 to 1999, the Computer Laboratory conducted, from which he retired gradually. In 2001 he retired, but did research on both in Cambridge and in Edinburgh and had 2006 to 2007 the chaire international de recherche Blaise -Pascal held at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris.

Milner was always interested in the theoretical foundations for practical problems, with a focus in about programming languages, formal proofs and abstract computational models. He developed ( inspired by the work Dana Scott ) in John McCarthy's research group at Stanford LCF ( Logic for Computable Functions), one of the first tools for automated proofs. The ML programming language ( Meta Language), which he developed for the realization of LCF, was the first language with polymorphic type inference and type-safe exception handling, and has developed into independent working and teaching programming. . Their progression to Standard ML led Milner from 1983 to 1990 in a completely different area Milner developed a theory for analyzing concurrent systems, the calculus of communicating systems (CCS, based on ISO standards Language of Temporal Ordering Specification, LOTOS ) and ( with Joachim Parrow and David Walker) his successor, the π - calculus, and it also is with David Park, the concept of bisimulation. Most recently, he designed a system based on Bigraphen mathematical model that should be used especially in ubiquitous computing, and for which he also collaborated with Tony Hoare. All these achievements put Milner in teaching intensively. Although he never received his doctorate, he supervised 19 PhD students in his career.

In addition to various university committees, he was one among others and the Council of the European Association for Computer Science Theory and the math and computer science committee of the Royal Society of Danmarks advised Grundforskningsfond in the establishment of post-graduate schools and was a founding member of the UK Computing Research Committee. He worked among others for the journals Theoretical Computer Science and The Computer Journal.

Milner was married to Lucy Milner since 1963 and had a daughter and two sons, of whom he but one survived.

Awards (selection)

It was established in 1988 as a member ( "Fellow" ) of the Royal Society of London appointed and in 1991 received the ACM Turing Award for LCF, ML and CCS. In 1994 he was awarded the Friedrich L. Bauer Prize, 2004 of the Royal Medals of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and in 2005 the EATCS Award.

Milner was a founding member of the Academia Europaea (1988 ), Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society ( 1988), and Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (1993 ) and the ACM ( 1994), as well as foreign member of the Académie française (2005) and the National Academy of Engineering ( 2008).

He received honorary doctorate of TH Chalmers (1988 ), the University of Stirling (1996 ), the University of Bologna (1997), City University London (1998), the University of Aarhus (1999), the University of Essex (2000), the University of Edinburgh ( 2003), the University of Glasgow (2005) and the University of Paris-Sud (2007), and is an honorary fellow of the University of Wales, Swansea ( 2004).

Milner himself donated the University of Edinburgh money to organize the annual Milner Lecture, annual, researchers will be honored with the 1996, significant achievements have made to link the theoretical with the practical computer science.

Writings (selection )

• A Calculus of Communicating Systems. Springer Science Business Media, 1980. ISBN 3-540-10235-3
• Communication and Concurrency. Prentice Hall, 1989. ISBN 0-131-15007-3
• With Mads Tofte, Robert Harper, and David MacQueen: The Definition of Standard ML, Revised Edition. MIT Press, 1997. ISBN 0-262-63181-4
• The Space and Motion of Communicating Agents. Cambridge University Press, 2009. ISBN 9780521738330