Gordon Plotkin

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Computer Scientist

title: "Gordon Plotkin" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1946-births", "living-people", "british-computer-scientists", "fellows-of-the-royal-society", "members-of-academia-europaea", "fellows-of-the-american-academy-of-arts-and-sciences", "royal-society-wolfson-research-merit-award-holders", "formal-methods-people", "programming-language-researchers", "scottish-jews", "alumni-of-the-university-of-edinburgh", "academics-of-the-university-of-edinburgh", "fellows-of-the-royal-society-of-edinburgh", "jewish-british-scientists", "alumni-of-the-university-of-glasgow"] description: "Computer Scientist" topic_path: "technology/computing" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Plotkin" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Computer Scientist ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox scientist"]

FieldValue
imageGordon Plotkin.jpg
honorific_suffix
captionPlotkin in 2005
nameGordon Plotkin
birth_nameGordon David Plotkin
birth_date
{{Who's Whoauthor
birth_placeGlasgow, Scotland
fieldLogic
Mathematics
Computer science
work_institutionUniversity of Edinburgh
Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science
School of Informatics
University of Glasgow
alma_materUniversity of Glasgow (BSc)
University of Edinburgh (PhD)
awards{{Plainlist
thesis_titleAutomatic methods of inductive inference
thesis_year1972
thesis_urlhttps://hdl.handle.net/1842/6656
known_forProgramming Computable Functions
Unbounded nondeterminism
Operational semantics
Domain theory
website

| | doctoral_advisor | {{Plainlist| | | * Rod Burstall<ref name | "mathgene" | | * Donald Michie<ref name | "plotkinphd"/}} | | doctoral_students | {{Plainlist| | | * Luca Cardelli<ref name | "lucaphd"{{cite thesis |degree=PhD |first=Luca|last=Cardelli |title=An algebraic approach to hardware description and verification |publisher=University of Edinburgh |date=1982 |id=|hdl=1842/13308 | | author-link | Luca Cardelli}} | | * Philippa Gardner<ref name | gPhD | | * Doug Gurr<ref name | gurrphd | | * Eugenio Moggi<ref name | "moggiphd" | | * Lǐ Wèi<ref name | "liweiphd" | ::

| image = Gordon Plotkin.jpg | honorific_suffix = | caption = Plotkin in 2005 | name = Gordon Plotkin | birth_name = Gordon David Plotkin | birth_date = | birth_place = Glasgow, Scotland | field = Logic Mathematics Computer science | work_institution = University of Edinburgh Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science School of Informatics University of Glasgow | alma_mater = University of Glasgow (BSc) University of Edinburgh (PhD) | awards = {{Plainlist|

| doctoral_advisor = {{Plainlist|

Education

Plotkin was educated at the University of Glasgow and the University of Edinburgh, gaining his Bachelor of Science degree in 1967 and PhD in 1972 supervised by Rod Burstall.

Career and research

Plotkin has remained at Edinburgh, and was, with Burstall and Robin Milner, a co-founder of the Laboratory for Foundations of Computer Science (LFCS). His former doctoral students include Luca Cardelli, Philippa Gardner, Doug Gurr, Eugenio Moggi, and Lǐ Wèi.

Awards and honours

Plotkin was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1992, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (FRSE) and is a Member of the Academia Europæa and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is also a winner of the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. Plotkin received the Milner Award in 2012 for "his fundamental research into programming semantics with lasting impact on both the principles and design of programming languages." His nomination for the Royal Society reads: {{centred pull quote|Plotkin has contributed to Artificial Intelligence, Logic, Linguistics and especially to Computer Science. In AI he worked on hypothesis-formation and universal unification; in Logic, on frameworks for arbitrary logics; in Linguistics, on formalising situation theory. His main general contribution has been to establish a semantic framework for Computer Science, especially programming languages. Particular significant results are in the lambda-calculus (elementary models, definability, call-by-value), non-determinism (powerdomain theory), semantic formalisms (structured operational semantics, metalanguages), and categories of semantic domains (coherent, pro-finite, concrete). Further contributions concern the semantic paradigm of full abstraction, concurrency theory (event structures), programming logic and type theory.}}

References

References

  1. {{MathGenealogy
  2. Gardner, Philippa. (1992). "Representing logics in type theory". University of Edinburgh.
  3. Gurr, Douglas John. (1990). "Semantic frameworks for complexity". University of Edinburgh.
  4. Moggi, Eugenio. (1999). "The partial lambda calculus". University of Edinburgh.
  5. Wèi, Lǐ. (1983). "An operational approach to semantics and translation for programming languages".
  6. Crary, Karl. (2007). "Syntactic Logical Relations for Polymorphic and Recursive Types". Electronic Notes in Theoretical Computer Science.
  7. Curien, Pierre-Louis. (April 2022). "Semantics and syntax, between computer science and mathematics".
  8. {{Google scholar id
  9. {{ACMPortal
  10. {{Scopus id
  11. {{DBLP
  12. (1988). "Abstract types have existential type". ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems.
  13. (1993). "A calculus for access control in distributed systems". ACM Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems.
  14. "Symposium for Gordon Plotkin".
  15. Plotkin, Gordon David. (1972). "Automatic methods of inductive inference". University of Edinburgh.
  16. (1975). "Call-by-name, call-by-value and the λ-calculus". Theoretical Computer Science.
  17. (2004). "The origins of structural operational semantics". The Journal of Logic and Algebraic Programming.
  18. ''[http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/plotkin81structural.html A Structural Approach to Operational Semantics]'' by G.D. Plotkin (1981)
  19. ''[http://vmoc.museophile.org/pvs04/ Program Verification and Semantics: Further Work] {{webarchive. link. (26 September 2007 '' (2004))
  20. Hoffmann, Ilire Hasani, Robert. "Academy of Europe: Plotkin Gordon".
  21. "New Members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences".
  22. "- Royal Society".
  23. "EC/1992/29: Plotkin, Gordon David". The Royal Society.

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