2/28/2002 12:08:00 AM
Computer
science professor earns 'well-deserved' election to NAE
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BY JADE BOYD
Rice News Staff
Rice University
computer science professor Moshe Vardi has been elected
to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) for his contributions
to the formal verification of hardware and software correctness.
Vardi, the Karen
Ostrum George Professor in Computational Engineering and
chair of Rices computer science department, is among
74 engineers elected to NAE membership this month.
Election to
the NAE is among the highest professional distinctions accorded
an engineer. Academy membership honors those who have made
important contributions to engineering theory and practice,
including to the literature of engineering theory and practice,
and those who have demonstrated unusual accomplishments
in the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology.
Vardi becomes the 12th NAE member on Rices engineering
faculty.
Moshe
Vardi has a unique vision of how information technology
reaches beyond the realms of science and engineering to
affect society at large, said Sidney Burrus, dean
of Rices George R. Brown School of Engineering. Im
pleased that his insight is drawing national and international
acclaim from his peers. His election to the NAE is well-deserved.
The NAE was
established in 1964 under the charter of the National Academy
of Sciences as an organization of outstanding engineers.
It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection
of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences
the responsibility for advising the federal government.
The NAE also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting
national needs, encourages education and research and recognizes
the superior achievements of engineers. The academy has
2,107 members in the United States and 158 foreign associates.
Vardi joined
the Rice University engineering faculty in 1993 and has
chaired the Department of Computer Science since 1994. Vardi
also serves as the director of Rices Computer and
Information Technology Institute. He is the recipient of
numerous other honors and appointments, including the Gödel
Prize for outstanding papers in the area of theoretical
computer science, and was named a fellow of the Association
of Computing Machinery in 2000.
Most recently,
Vardi was named to receive an honorary doctoral degree from
Saarland University at Saarbruecken, Germany. It will be
presented at a symposium in his honor titled On the
Effectiveness of Logic in Computer Science, scheduled
for March 4-6 at Saarland Universitys International
Max Planck Research Institute for Computer Science.
Vardi has served
as a board member of the European Association for Computer
Science Logic since 1997 and as a board member of the Computing
Research Association since 2001.