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C00002 00002		This letter is in support of granting permanent resident
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	This letter is in support of granting permanent resident
status to Dr. Yoav Shoham in connection with his appointment as
Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Stanford University.

	The letter from Professor Nils Nilsson, the Chairman of
the Computer Science Department, describes the search that was
conducted for a suitable candidate for this position.  I have
nothing to add to that.  I agree with Professor Nilsson that
there aren't enough qualified U.S. citizens for such positions
combining high level AI research and teaching.

	However, I can speak to the shortage of people working
in Shoham's area which happens to be my specialty also.
The field of using mathematical logic to express common sense
knowledge in a way that can be used by intelligent computer
programs started about 30 years ago, but progress has been alow.
The main reason has been the shortage of people who combine the
necessary knowledge and ability in logic with the necessary
interest in the basically non-mathematical problem of
common sense reasoning and problem solving.

	Shoham is one of the few people who combine these abilities,
as evidenced by the work of his PhD thesis.  This is why we
chose him for our faculty.  We expect him to develop this difficult field
by his own research and also to help students get started in it.

Sincerely,