Thursday, September 25, 2008

Vardi Receives The Blaise Pascal Medal in Computer Science For 2008

I just learned that WG1.8 member Moshe Vardi is the recipient of the Blaise Pascal Medal in Computer Science for 2008 of the European Academy of Sciences. This is outstanding news for TCS as a whole and for our WG in particular.

The motivation for the prize reads:

In recognition of his outstanding contributions in several areas of computer science connected by their use of logic as an underlying methodology. His work has had fundamental and lasting impact on automatic verification, logic of knowledge, database theory, and finite-model theory.
Congrats to Moshe!

Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Changes at the helm of WG1.8 and plans for the near future

I apologize for not posting much on this blog of late. Life has been very hectic and the organization of ICALP 2008 took its toll on me, but that's no excuse for the silence.

Chairpersons of IFIP WGs are in service for a three-year period and may apply for reappointment for another three-year stint. My period of service is running out as we speak and, in the light of several other family- and work-related commitments, I think that it is best for the WG if I step down as chair now. The WG needs a more active and visible chairperson. Thanks a lot for your cooperation over the last three years. I enjoyed it a lot.

Wan Fokkink and Anna Ingolfsdottir will also step down from their positions as vice-chair and secretary of the WG. Thanks a lot to them for their sterling service.

The IFIP secratariat will organize an election that will allow us to decide on our new chairperson democratically. We are lucky to have a strong candidate for the role, namely Jos Baeten. Jos is the chairman of the Steering Committee for CONCUR and the Dutch national representative within TC1. If he is elected as chairperson of the WG, he will therefore ensure a seamless integration of our activities with those within the CONCUR conferences and within TC1.

If you would like to run for election, please drop me a line.

We are also planning several new strategic workshops under the auspices of the WG. We will organize a workshop affiliated with FM 2009, which will be held in Eindhoven. The workshop will be organized by Wan Fokkink and Uwe Nestmann, and its preliminary theme is related to the connections between the research carried out within the CONCUR community and the PODC community, with possible emphasis on the development of verification techniques and tools.

We are also thinking about organizing a workshop at CONCUR 2009 in Bologna. We already have some ideas for possible topics for the workshop, but we welcome your input for this and future workshops.

I also encourage you to use the blog for airing your opinions, questions and desires related to the activities of the WG.

I'll sign off now, since Tim Roughgarden is starting his invited talk at TCS 2008.