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\F0\CARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LABORATORY
\CDEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE
\CSTANFORD UNIVERSITY
\CSTANFORD, CALIFORNIA 94305
\F1









							March 15, 1974




Professor S. J. Lomonaco
SUNY at Albany
1400 Washington Avenue
Albany, New York 12222

Dear Professor Lomonaco:

\J	This is in response to your letter asking for my opinion of the
possible appointment of Dr. James Slagle as Chairman of the Computer Science Department.

	In my opinion, he has the ability, the experience and the research
productivity to warrant such an appointment.  His book, \F2Artificial Intelligence\F1
and Nilsson's \F2Problem Solving Methods in Artificial Intelligence\F1 are the two
general books on the subject worth reading.  His students, Chang and Lee, have
written a good book on theorem proving, so one can say that Slagle is not only 
scholarly himself, but he encourages it in others.

	His thesis was first class, but I have not followed his research since that
time--mainly because he has gone into theorem proving using resolution.  This field
has gotten too technical for me to follow in detail, especially as I have some vague
ideas about other approaches being perhaps better.\.


							Sincerely,


							John McCarthy
							Director, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
							Professor of Computer Science