Jump to content

Lambert Meertens

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lambert Meertens
Meertens in Istanbul in 2020
Born
Lambert Guillaume Louis Théodore Meertens

(1944-05-10) 10 May 1944 (age 82)
Amsterdam, Netherlands
CitizenshipNetherlands
Known forALGOL 68, ABC, Bird–Meertens formalism
AwardsIFIP Silver Core (2007)[1][2]
IFIP Outstanding Service Award (2015)
Scientific career
FieldsComputer science
InstitutionsCentrum Wiskunde & Informatica
Utrecht University
Kestrel Institute

Lambert Guillaume Louis Théodore Meertens (born 10 May 1944) is a Dutch computer scientist[3] who is professor emeritus at Utrecht University. As of 2020, he is a researcher at the Kestrel Institute.[2]

Life and career

[edit]

Meertens was born in Amsterdam. As a student at the Ignatius Gymnasium in Amsterdam, he designed a computer with Kees Koster, a classmate.[4] In the 1960s, Meertens applied affix grammars to the description and composition of music, and obtained a special prize from the jury at the 1968 International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) Congress in Edinburgh for his computer-generated string quartet, Quartet No. 1 in C major for 2 violins, viola and violoncello, based on the first non-context-free affix grammar.[5][6] The string quartet was published in 1968, as Mathematical Centre Report MR 96.[7]

Meertens was one of the editors of the Revised ALGOL 68 Report.[8] He was the originator and one of the designers of the programming language ABC, the incidental predecessor of Python.[9][10] He was codesigner of the Bird–Meertens formalism, along with Richard Bird, who also gifted him the Meertens number.[11]

He became involved with developing international standards in programming and informatics, as a member of IFIP Working Group 2.1 on Algorithmic Languages and Calculi,[12] which specified, maintains, and supports the languages ALGOL 60 and ALGOL 68.[13] From 1999 to 2009, he was chairperson.

His original work was at the Mathematical Centre (MC), now called Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. He co-founded the Pagelet project along with Susan Uskudarli and T. B. Dinesh.[14]

After having been associate professor of Computer Science at New York University in 1982–83, he was part-time Professor of Applied Logic at Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands, from 1984 to 1986 before becoming part-time Professor of Software Technology at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, where he is now professor emeritus. As of 2021, he works as a researcher at the Kestrel Institute in Palo Alto, California.

Political activity

[edit]

Meertens was chairman of the Dutch Pacifist Socialist Party (PSP) from 1975 until 1981. He remains on the political left, reflecting on an ideology that could unite left-wing activists.[15]

Awards

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 "Holders of the IFIP Silver Core Award (1974–2007)" (PDF). Griffith University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-01-03. Retrieved 2018-01-22.
  2. 1 2 3 "Prof. Lambert Meertens". Kestrel Institute. Retrieved 2018-01-22.
  3. ↑ Prof.dr. L.G.L.Th. Meertens (1944–) at the Catalogus Professorum Academiæ Rheno-Traiectinæ
  4. ↑ Rooijendijk, Cordula (2007). Alles moest nog worden uitgevonden (in Dutch). Atlas.
  5. ↑ Kassler, Michael (1969). "Report from Edinburgh". Perspectives of New Music. 7 (2): 175–177. doi:10.2307/832302. JSTOR 832302..
  6. ↑ Quartet No. 1 in C major for 2 violins, viola and violoncello Archived 2011-07-18 at the Wayback Machine. Score and links to mp3 sound files of a performance by the Amsterdam String Quartet (1968).
  7. ↑ Meertens, Lambert (1968). Quartet no. 1 in C major for 2 violins, viola and violoncello (Technical report). Mathematical Centre. MR96.
  8. ↑ van Wijngaarden, Adriaan; Mailloux, Barry James; Peck, John Edward Lancelot; Koster, Cornelis Hermanus Antonius; Sintzoff, Michel [in French]; Lindsey, Charles Hodgson; Meertens, Lambert Guillaume Louis Théodore; Fisker, Richard G., eds. (1976). Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language ALGOL 68 (PDF). Springer-Verlag. ISBN 978-0-387-07592-1. OCLC 1991170. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2019-04-19. Retrieved 2019-05-11.
  9. ↑ Hamilton, Naomi (2008-05-08). "The A–Z of Programming Languages: Python". Computerworld. IDG Communications. Archived from the original on 2008-12-29. Retrieved 2020-09-04. ... I figured I could design and implement a language 'almost, but not quite, entirely unlike' ABC, improving upon ABC's deficiencies, ...
  10. ↑ Stewart, Bruce (2002-06-04). "An Interview with Guido van Rossum". ONLamp.com. O’Reilly Media. Archived from the original on 2013-03-13. Retrieved 2020-09-04. ... in my head I had analyzed some of the reasons it had failed.
  11. ↑ Bird, Richard S. (1998). "Meertens number". Journal of Functional Programming. 8 (1): 83–88. doi:10.1017/S0956796897002931. S2CID 2939112.
  12. ↑ Jeuring, Johan; Meertens, Lambert; Guttmann, Walter (2016-08-17). "Profile of IFIP Working Group 2.1". Foswiki. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  13. ↑ Swierstra, Doaitse; Gibbons, Jeremy; Meertens, Lambert (2011-03-02). "ScopeEtc: IFIP21: Foswiki". Foswiki. Retrieved 2020-10-16.
  14. ↑ "The Team @ PANTOTO". PANTOTO Communities. 2002-08-14. Archived from the original on 2002-08-14. Retrieved 2023-07-15.
  15. ↑ "Can A Shared Ideology Unite Leftist Activists? (A Guest Post By Lambert Meertens,Computer Scientist and Professor, Netherlands, IOPS)". The Perspectives. Archived from the original on 2020-04-12. Retrieved 2020-04-12.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lambert_Meertens&oldid=1363474393"