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\centerline{\bf ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE KYOTO PRIZE 1988}
\centerline{\bf LAUREATE ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY}
\bigskip
Dr. John McCarthy is a pioneer in the research of artificial intelligence
(A.I.), which is currently one of the most attractive fields in computer
science.  Since the genesis of A.I., he has challenged the basic problems
of this field as a leader and is called {\it ``the father of Artificial
Intelligence''}.
Dr. McCarthy entered California Institute of Technology at the age of 16
and took an interest in A.I. research already in his school days.  Among
colleagues during the postgraduate course of the Princeton University was
Dr. Marvin Minsky, and these two young researchers later became the two
greatest authorities of A.I.$\,$ Dr. McCarthy first studied A.I. based on
automaton and edited, a publication titled {\it ``Automata Studies''} with
Dr. Shannon.  This book had a great influence on the automaton studies in
Japan in those days.

One of Dr. McCarthy's achievements is the study of {\it ``Common Sense
Reasoning''}, in which the logic of common sense reasoning was formalized
to provide reasoning capabilities equal to that of humans to computers.
From the study of {\it ``Programs with Common Sense''} in 1950's to the
recent {\it ``Circumscription''}, a form of nonmonotonic reasoning, he
has consistently proposed new theories beyond the scope of the conventional
inference of information science, contributing the development of this field.

However, his most outstanding work may be creation of {\it LISP}, a
programming language for symbolic processing.  Conventional programming
languages were designed for numerical processing, while {\it LISP} was designed
based on the idea what functions are required for effective symbolic
processing.  Most of current A.I. research use {\it LISP}, and it is
indispensable for that purpose.  His concept gave a significant influence
on the present programming languages and is considered to the greatest invention
in this century in the field of computer science.

Besides, Dr. McCarthy has reported a number of theses that established the
foundation of basic computaton theory for the present software science.  In
the field of computer engineering, he proposed the basic concept of the time
sharing system (TSS) and was involved in its production.  This is highly
acclaimed as a work that opened up a way toward the development of the
present large computers.

In addition to these contributions, Dr. McCarthy started the first project of
A.I. at MIT in 1958 and established the Artificial Intelligence Lab there.
After having moved to Stanford University, he also established the A.I. laboratory
at the University.  He was the president of the American Association for Artificial
Intelligence for 1983 - 1984 and contributed to instruction of younger
researchers and development of the association.  Dr. McCarthy was awarded
the 1971 A.M. Turing Award and the first Research Excellence Award of IJCAI
in 1985.

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He has visited Japan several times since 1969.  During his visits, he gave
lectures at the research Institute for Mathematical Sciences of Kyoto 
University and other places, stayed at Kyoto as a co-worker, and taught
many young researchers.  He is also a Japanophile who loves Kyoto.
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