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Stephen Kleene

Stephen Kleene
Kleene.jpg
Born (1909-01-05)January 5, 1909
Hartford, Connecticut, US
Died January 25, 1994(1994-01-25) (aged 85)
Madison, Wisconsin, US
Residence United States
Nationality American
Fields Mathematics
Institutions University of Wisconsin–Madison
Alma mater Amherst College
Princeton University
Doctoral advisor Alonzo Church
Doctoral students John Addison Jr.
Paul Axt
Douglas Clarke
Robert Constable
David Kierstead
Shih-Chao Liu
Joan Moschovakis
Yiannis Moschovakis
Nels David Nelson
Gene Rose
Clifford Spector
Richard Vesley
Dick de Jongh
Notable awards Leroy P. Steele Prize (1983)
National Medal of Science (1990)

Stephen Cole Kleene /ˈkln/ KLAY-nee (January 5, 1909 – January 25, 1994) was an American mathematician. One of the students of Alonzo Church, Kleene, along with Alan Turing, Emil Post, and others, is best known as a founder of the branch of mathematical logic known as recursion theory, which subsequently helped to provide the foundations of theoretical computer science. Kleene's work grounds the study of which functions are computable. A number of mathematical concepts are named after him: Kleene hierarchy, Kleene algebra, the Kleene star (Kleene closure), Kleene's recursion theorem and the Kleene fixpoint theorem. He also invented regular expressions, and made significant contributions to the foundations of mathematical intuitionism.

Although his last name is commonly pronounced /ˈkln/ KLEE-nee or /ˈkln/ kleen, Kleene himself pronounced it /ˈkln/ KLAY-nee. His son, Ken Kleene, wrote: "As far as I am aware this pronunciation is incorrect in all known languages. I believe that this novel pronunciation was invented by my father."


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