Alonzo Church

Alonzo Church (1903-1995) was an influential American mathematician and logician. His work in mathematical logic, particularly lambda calculus, laid the foundations for computation theory and functional programming. Church's contributions had a profound impact on computer science and the understanding of computability, influencing fields such as philosophy and artificial intelligence.

Made fundamental contributions to theoretical computer science, specifically in the development of computability theory in the form of lambda calculus. Independently of Alan Turing, formulated what is now known as the Church-Turing Thesis and proved that first-order logic is undecidable.

Alonzo Church was an American computer scientist, mathematician, logician, and philosopher who made major contributions to mathematical logic and the foundations of theoretical computer science. He is best known for the lambda calculus, the Church–Turing thesis, proving the unsolvability of the Entscheidungsproblem, the Frege–Church ontology, and the Church–Rosser theorem. Alongside his doctoral student Alan Turing, Church is considered one of the founders of computer science.