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C00002 00002 @make(letterhead,Phone"497-4430",Who"John McCarthy",Logo Old, Department CSD)
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@make(letterhead,Phone"497-4430",Who"John McCarthy",Logo Old, Department CSD)
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@begin(address)
Professor M.M. Lehman
Head of Department and Professor of Computer Science
Department of Computing
Imperial College
180 Queen's Gate
London SW7 2BZ
ENGLAND
@end(address)
@Greeting(Dear Manny:)
@begin(body)
I am happy to recommend Bob Kowalski for a personal chair in
Computing Science Theory.
I cannot speak to the full range of his activity, because I
keep up only with those fields of direct interest to me. However,
I have become acquainted with logic programming in the last few years.
This field was created essentially by two people, Kowalski and
Alain Colmerauer. Colmerauer initiated the Prolog language and Kowalski
is responsible for much of the theory and many of the applications.
Logic programming is one of the few recent fields of computer
science that hasn't had major U.S. participation in its development, and,
perhaps for that reason, it is only recently becoming popular.
However, I think it has a lot to offer, especially in that it permits
the separation of logic and control to a greater extent than in any
other form of programming. Kowalski is responsible for initiating
this separation and emphasizing its importance.
His book, LOGIC FOR PROBLEM SOLVING,plays an important role
in making logic programming accessible.
In my opinion, Kowalski is fully deserving of a personal chair -
taking into account the requirements specified in your letter.
@end(body)
Sincerely,
John McCarthy
Professor of Computer Science