10/6/2016

Leslie Lamport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

LeslieLamport
FromWikipedia,thefreeencyclopedia

LeslieB.Lamport(bornFebruary7,1941)isan
Americancomputerscientist.Lamportisbestknown
forhisseminalworkindistributedsystemsandasthe
initialdeveloperofthedocumentpreparationsystem
LaTeX.[2]LeslieLamportwasthewinnerofthe2013
TuringAward[3]forimposingclear,welldefined
coherenceontheseeminglychaoticbehaviorof
distributedcomputingsystems,inwhichseveral
autonomouscomputerscommunicatewitheachother
bypassingmessages.Hedevisedimportant
algorithmsanddevelopedformalmodelingand
verificationprotocolsthatimprovethequalityofreal
distributedsystems.Thesecontributionshaveresulted
inimprovedcorrectness,performance,andreliability
ofcomputersystems.[4][5][6][7][8]

LeslieLamport

Contents

Born

February7,1941
NewYorkCity,NewYork

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Fields

Computerscience

Earlylifeandeducation
Career
Awardsandmemberships
References

Institutions

MicrosoftResearch
Compaq
DigitalEquipmentCorporation
SRIInternational

Earlylifeandeducation

Almamater

MIT(BSc)
BrandeisUniversity(PhD)

AgraduateoftheBronxHighSchoolofScience,he
receivedaB.S.inmathematicsfromthe
MassachusettsInstituteofTechnologyin1960,and
M.A.andPh.D.degreesinmathematicsfrom
BrandeisUniversity,respectivelyin1963and
1972.[9]Hisdissertationwasaboutsingularitiesin
analyticpartialdifferentialequations.[10]

Thesis

TheanalyticCauchyproblemwith
singulardata(http://search.proquest.c
om/docview/288284622)(1972)

Doctoral
advisor

RichardPalais[1]

Knownfor

Career
Professionally,Lamportworkedasacomputer
scientistatMassachusettsComputerAssociatesfrom
1970to1977,SRIInternationalfrom1977to1985,
andDigitalEquipmentCorporationandCompaqfrom
1985to2001.In2001hejoinedMicrosoftResearch
inMountainView,California.[9]

Notable
awards

LaTeX
Sequentialconsistency
AtomicRegisterHierarchy
Lamport'sbakeryalgorithm
Byzantinefaulttolerance
Paxosalgorithm
Lamportsignature
DijkstraPrize(2000and2005)
IEEEEmanuelR.PioreAward(2004)
IEEEJohnvonNeumannMedal(2008)
ACMTuringAward(2013)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Lamport

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Leslie Lamport - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lamportsresearchcontributionshavelaidthe
foundationsofthetheoryofdistributedsystems.
Amonghismostnotablepapersare

ACMFellow(2014)
Website
www.lamport.org(http://www.lamport.org)

Time,Clocks,andtheOrderingofEventsina
DistributedSystem,[5]whichreceivedthePODCInfluentialPaperAwardin2000,[11]
HowtoMakeaMultiprocessorComputerThatCorrectlyExecutesMultiprocessPrograms,[12]
whichdefinedthenotionofSequentialconsistency,
TheByzantineGenerals'Problem,[13]
DistributedSnapshots:DeterminingGlobalStatesofaDistributedSystem[14]and
ThePartTimeParliament.[15]
Thesepapersrelatetosuchconceptsaslogicalclocks(andthehappenedbeforerelationship)and
Byzantinefailures.Theyareamongthemostcitedpapersinthefieldofcomputerscience[16]and
describealgorithmstosolvemanyfundamentalproblemsindistributedsystems,including:
thePaxosalgorithmforconsensus,
thebakeryalgorithmformutualexclusionofmultiplethreadsinacomputersystemthatrequire
thesameresourcesatthesametimeand
theChandyLamportalgorithmforthedeterminationofconsistentglobalstates(snapshot).
Lamportisalsoknownforhisworkontemporallogic,whereheintroducedthetemporallogicofactions
(TLA).[17][18]AmonghismorerecentcontributionsisTLA+,alanguageforspecifyingandreasoning
aboutconcurrentandreactivesystems,thathedescribesinthebookSpecifyingSystems:TheTLA+
LanguageandToolsforHardwareandSoftwareEngineers[19]anddefinesasaquixoticattemptto
overcomeengineers'antipathytowardsmathematics.[20]

Awardsandmemberships
Lamportreceivedthe2013ACMA.M.TuringAwardfor"fundamentalcontributionstothetheoryand
practiceofdistributedandconcurrentsystems,notablytheinventionofconceptssuchascausalityand
logicalclocks,safetyandliveness,replicatedstatemachines,andsequentialconsistency"in2014.[21]He
waselectedtoFellowofACM(2014).[22]HealsoreceivedfivehonorarydoctoratesfromEuropean
universities:UniversityofRennesandChristianAlbrechtsUniversityofKielin2003,EPFLin2004,
UniversityofLuganoin2006,andNancyUniversitin2007.[9]In2004,hereceivedtheIEEEEmanuel
R.PioreAward.[23]In2005,thepaperReachingAgreementinthePresenceofFaults[24]receivedthe
DijkstraPrize.[25]InhonorofLamport'ssixtiethbirthday,alectureserieswasorganisedatthe20th
SymposiumonPrinciplesofDistributedComputing(PODC2001).[26]In2008,hereceivedtheIEEE
JohnvonNeumannMedal.[27]In2011,hewaselectedtotheUnitedStatesNationalAcademyof
Sciences.[28]HewasnamedACMFellow[29]2014forfundamentalcontributionstothetheoryand
practiceofdistributedandconcurrentsystems.

References
1.LeslieLamport(http://www.genealogy.ams.org/id.php?id=35871)attheMathematicsGenealogyProject
2.Lamport,Leslie(1986).LaTeX:ADocumentPreparationSystem.AddisonWesley.ISBN020115790X.
Retrieved20070202.
3.Lamport,Leslie(2013)."LeslieLamportA.M.TuringAwardWinner".ACM.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Lamport

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