Computer Science Distinguished Lecturer Series: Maurice Herlihy
Maurice Herlihy
Brown University
Department of Computer Science
Faculty Host: Ramesh Sitaraman
"Algebraic Topology and Distributed Computing"
In the past several years, a number of researchers have successfully applied techniques from Algebraic and Combinatorial Topology to solve a number of long-standing open problems in the theory of distributed and concurrent computing. This talk will describe some basic problems in distributed computing, and how to solve them using notions from elementary Topology. We will describe some open problems and possible future directions. This talk is intended for a general audience.
This talk is adapted from the 2004 Göedel Prize lecture.
Maurice Herlihy received the A.B. degree in Mathematics from Harvard University and the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from MIT. He has been an assistant professor in the Computer Science department at Carnegie Mellon University, a member of research staff at Digital Equipment Corporation's Cambridge (MA) Research Lab, and a consultant for Sun Microsystems. He is now Professor of Computer Science at Brown University.
Professor Herlihy's research centers on practical and theoretical aspects of multiprocessor synchronization, with a focus on wait-free and lock-free synchronization. His 1991 paper "Wait-Free Synchronization' won the 2003 Dijkstra Prize in Distributed Computing, and he shared the 2004 Göedel Prize for his 1999 paper "The Topological Structure of Asynchronous Computation'.
Refreshments at 3:40 PM in the atrium, outside the presentation room.
