ACHIEVEMENTS OF Dr. Donald
Ervin Knuth
THE 1996 KYOTO PRIZE LAUREATE
IN
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY
Field Selected: Information Science
Dr. Donald Ervin Knuth has made innumerable contributions to
the
development of 20th century information sciences through research
and education. In addition to systematizing the field of
software science and creating foundations which comprise it, he
has achieved great results in a broad spectrum of research
ranging from the basics of algorithm analysis to designing
programming languages and developing information processing
technology for practical application in computers.
Today's Information Revolution, not unlike the 18th Century's
industrial Revolution, is marked by the development of sciences
devoted to the research and study of information or information
phenomena. The development of the "information
sciences" has
roots in the originally independent fields of computing and
communications, which became integrated over the past 40 years.
Information sciences can be said to have originated in
cybernetics, as advocated by Norbert Wiener, and the
systemization of information theory, as defined by Claude Elwood
Shannon [laureate of the first (1985) Kyoto Prizes]. However,
another major power for the development of information sciences
was the appearance and development of stored-program computers,
which enabled the really effective machine processing of
information. Standing on such the base, Dr. Knuth's development
of information processing technology made a great contribution
to the arrival of our present information-based society.
Dr. Knuth's achievements include the following.
1. The publication of "The Art of Computer
Programming" and the
research of important algorithms. Not only did Dr. Knuth make the
systematized compilation of
the algorithms which comprise the foundations for the
effective use of computers, he helped popularize and spread
the awareness of computer programming as a science. This has
had a tremendous impact on both the academic world and
society in general. While the three volumes of "The Art of
Computer Programming" currently in print can be regarded as
classical textbooks or dictionaries, they are also considered
the bible of algorithms, providing deep insight into the
inherent meaning of algorithms and their associated programs.
2. Development of the "TEX" computer type setting
system and the
"METAFONT" font design system.
It was Dr. Knuth's research and development of these systems
which first enabled document publishing and professional-
quality typesetting to be conducted using computers. TEX is
presently used throughout the world as a type setting system
for the European languages, as well as Japanese and Korean,
and has been employed in the publication of documents, books,
and treatises of the American Mathematical Society and other
academic societies. In this way, Dr. Knuth's work has had a
major influence not only in the field of information
sciences, but technologically and socially as well. TEX in
particular has become a public domain software of world-wide
acclaim, benefiting society in immeasurable ways that have
not brought Dr. Knuth financial gain. It may be no
exaggeration to state that the development of this system is
the single most important achievement in publishing since
Johannes Gutenberg's original printing press.
3. Development of LR parser and attribute grammar.
These works have established a new method of language
analysis and subsequently made a basic contribution to
compiler technologies employed in the field of computer
programming.
In addition to the above, other achievements by Dr. Knuth span
the entire spectrum of computer sciences and information
sciences, including his development of string pattern matching
algorithms, random number generating algorithms, the Knuth-Bendix
algorithm, and a wide range of other theoretically renowned and
practical algorithms; as well as his creation of literate
programming and the ensuing development of a literate programming
support system.
At first glance, the research of these various algorithms and
the
research of document preparation appear to be quite different;
however, through Dr. Knuth's work computers and information
processing have come together to create a single, unified art.
Whether writing a program or arranging letters and characters on
a page in the most beautiful layout possible, his fundamental and
consistent view is that the basic approach to technology is
essentially that of an artistic endeavor.
Through these achievements, Dr. Donald Ervin Knuth has helped
support the rapid development of the information sciences and
entire associated industries throughout last 25 years, providing
firm directions and concrete technologies for further
development. His enormous contributions to these fields have
established him as a giant in the field of information sciences.