Roberto Busa

Roberto Busa SJ (born 28 November 1913 in Asiago, Vicenza; † August 9, 2011 in Gallarate, Province of Varese ) was an Italian religious cleric, humanities and linguist. Roberto Busa is considered the founder of the scientific application of IT in the Humanities ( Digital Humanities ) and inventor of the index Thomisticus.

Life

Roberto Busa, the second of five children of a railway official, attended elementary school in Bolzano, Scipione Maffei in the Verona and the Titian in Belluno. In 1928 he entered the seminary of Belluno and studied Catholic theology, among other things, Albino Luciani ( John Paul I ). He joined in 1933 the Congregation of the Jesuits in 1937 and graduated in philosophy and Catholic theology in 1940. On 30 May 1941 he was ordained priest. During World War II he was from 1940 to 1943 military chaplain in the Italian Army, and later with the partisans.

In 1949 he was appointed full professor of ontology, theodicy and Scientific work at the Pontifical Gregorian University. He was also at the Jesuit Faculty Aloisianum in Gallarate, Varese province, works. As a result of his activities created the Centro Analisi Linguistica Automazione ( CAAL ), the Comitato promoter and the Collegio d' Iniziativa. In 1983, the Associazione per la Computerizzazione Analisi delle Ermeneutiche e Lessicologiche " ( CAEL ) the CAAL. 1992, he founded the school of lexicography and hermeneutics ( Scuola di Lessicografia ed Ermeneutica ) within the Faculty of Philosophy at the Gregorian. Università Cattolica del Sacro At the Cuore in Milan, he founded the Gruppo per le Ricerche interdisciplinare della Computerizzazione dei Segni dell'Espressione ( GIRCSE ) and taught from 1995 to 2000 Artificial intelligence and Robotics. at the Gregorian University, he taught last computer -aided text analysis and Thomistic hermeneutics.

He is the namesake of the Busa Prize. He was honored by the Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi with the Grand Cross ( Cavaliere di Gran Croce ) of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic in 2005.