Nationality Israeli Fields Computer Science Role Computer scientist | Name David Harel Institutions Weizmann Institute | |
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Born 12 April 1950 (age 74) London, England ( 1950-04-12 ) Education Massachusetts Institute of Technology Awards EMET Prize in Exact Sciences Books Algorithmics, Come - Let’s Play: Scenario, Modeling reactive systems, Computers Ltd, The science of computing Similar People Albert R Meyer, David Peleg, Baruch Awerbuch | ||
Prof david harel standing on the shoulders of a giant one person s experience of turing s impact
David Harel (Hebrew: דוד הראל; born 12 April 1950) is a computer scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, and holds the William Sussman Professorial Chair of Mathematics. Born in London, England, he was Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science at the institute for seven years. He currently also serves as Vice-President of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Contents
- Prof david harel standing on the shoulders of a giant one person s experience of turing s impact
- David harel breaking the wall of biocomplexity falling walls 2012
- Biography
- Awards and honours
- References
David harel breaking the wall of biocomplexity falling walls 2012
Biography
Harel is best known for his work on dynamic logic, computability, database theory, software engineering and modelling biological systems. In the 1980s he invented the graphical language of Statecharts for specifying and programming reactive systems, which has been adopted as part of the UML standard. Since the late 1990s he has concentrated on a scenario-based approach to programming such systems, launched by his co-invention (with W. Damm) of Live Sequence Charts. He has published expository accounts of computer science, such as his award winning 1987 book "Algorithmics: The Spirit of Computing" and his 2000 book "Computers Ltd.: What They Really Can’t do", and has presented series on computer science for Israeli radio and television. He has also worked on other diverse topics, such as graph layout, computer science education and the analysis and communication of odors.
Harel completed his PhD at MIT between 1976 and 1978. In 1987, he co-founded the software company I-Logix, which in 2006 became part of IBM.
He has advocated building a full computer model of the Caenorhabditis elegans nematode, which was the first multicellular organism to have its genome completely sequenced. The eventual completeness of such a model depends on his updated version of the Turing test.
He is a fellow of the ACM, the IEEE, the AAAS, and EATCS.
Harel is active in several peace and human rights organisations in Israel.