Carl Hewitt

Carl Hewitt
Carl Hewitt in 2008
Fields	Computer Science Mathematical Logic Models of Computation Programming Languages Philosophy of Logic
Institutions	MIT Keio University Stanford University
Alma mater	MIT
Doctoral advisor	Seymour Papert
Other academic advisors	Marvin Minsky Mike Paterson
Doctoral students	Gul Agha Henry Baker William Clinger Irene Greif Akinori Yonezawa
Known for	Actor Model Inconsistency robustness Planner (logic programs) Comparative schematology
Website http://CarlHewitt.iRobust.org

Carl Eddie Hewitt (/ˈhjuːɪt/) is an American computer scientist who designed the Planner programming language for automated planning and the actor model of concurrent computation, which have been influential in the development of logic, functional and object-oriented programming. Planner was the first programming language based on procedural plans invoked using pattern-directed invocation from assertions and goals. The actor model influenced the development of the Scheme programming language, the π-calculus, and served as an inspiration for several other programming languages.

Hewitt obtained his PhD in mathematics at MIT in 1971, under the supervision of Seymour Papert, Marvin Minsky, and Mike Paterson. He began his employment at MIT that year, and retired from the faculty of the MIT Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science during the 1999-2000 school year. He became emeritus in the department in 2000. Among the doctoral students that Hewitt supervised during his time at MIT are Gul Agha, Henry Baker, William Clinger, Irene Greif, and Akinori Yonezawa.