Dana Scott

Dana Scott (born 1932) is an American mathematician and computer scientist. He is known for his contributions to the field of theoretical computer science, particularly in the area of semantics of programming languages. Scott's work on lambda calculus and denotational semantics has had a significant impact on the foundations of programming languages and mathematical logic.

The joint paper "Finite Automata and Their Decision Problems," which introduced the idea of nondeterministic machines, which has proved to be an enormously valuable concept. Their (Scott & Rabin) classic paper has been a continuous source of inspiration for subsequent work in this field.

Dana Stewart Scott is an American logician who is the Hillman University Professor emeritus of Computer Science, Philosophy, and Mathematical Logic at Carnegie Mellon University. He is now retired and lives in Berkeley, California. He and Michael O. Rabin won the 1976 ACM Turing Award for their work on automata theory, while his collaborative work with Christopher Strachey in the 1970s laid the foundations of modern approaches to the semantics of programming languages. He has also worked on modal logic, topology, and category theory.

• Rabin won the 1976 ACM Turing Award for their work on automata theory, while his collaborative work with Christopher Strachey in the 1970s laid the foundations of modern approaches to the semantics of programming languages.