perm filename REITER.RE2[LET,JMC] blob sn#740331 filedate 1984-01-25 generic text, type C, neo UTF8
COMMENT ⊗   VALID 00002 PAGES
C REC  PAGE   DESCRIPTION
C00001 00001
C00002 00002	.require "let.pub[let,jmc]" source
C00004 ENDMK
C⊗;
.require "let.pub[let,jmc]" source;
∂CSL Dr. Allan Borodin↓Chairman↓Department of Computer Science
↓Univeristy of Toronto↓Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A4↓CANADA∞

Dear Dr. Borodin:

	This letter must be brief, because I have just returned from
a long trip and am swamped with work.

	I think that Ray Reiter is worthy of a professorship
at the University of Toronto.

	The part of Reiter's work with which I am most familiar is
in non-monotonic reasoning, because this is my own major research area at
present.  Reiter's work includes logic of default reasoning, more
recently some results on my own circumscription formalism, numerous
test examples and his "unique names hypothesis".  He is also responsible
for the "closed world assumption" in database theory.
I am less familiar with Reiter's (and other) work in database theory.

	In general Reiter's work is characterized by logical precision
and applicability to applied problems.  The combination is rare.

	Judging from the rate at which he is producing new ideas, we
can say that he is in the peak period of his scientific career and a
lot can be expected in the next five years.

.sgn