Juris Hartmanis (1928 - 2022)

Born 5 Jul 1928 in Latvia

Died 29 Jul 2022 at age 94 in New York, United States

Biography

Juris Hartmanis is Notable.

Juris Hartmanis was a New Yorker.

Juris Hartmanis was a Latvian-born American computer scientist and computational theorist who, along with Richard E Sterns, received the 1993 ACM Turing Award "in recognition of their seminal part which established the foundations for the field of computational complexity theory". He was among the group of CS&E that contributed to the definition of the 'Bootlean hierarchy'.

As a child, Juris with his mother and siblings became refugees during WWII after they fled Latvia while his father died in prison. He was able to get the equivalent of a master's degree in physics from the University of Marburg in 1949. Then he immigrated to the United States^[1], and in 1951, he received a master's degree in applied mathematics from the University of Kansas City. In 1955, he received his Ph. D in mathematics from Caltech.

He became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1956 choosing the name George Hartman Hartmanis.^[2][3]

After stints teaching at Cornell and then Ohio State Universities, he went to work for General Electric Research Labs in Schenectady, NY from 1958-1965. Later, he became a professor at Cornell and helped to found its computer science department in 1965. Through his various and numerous board memberships, he worked to advance computer science and engineering education. He worked with other CS&E to co-define complexity classes based on space usage and proved the first space hierarchy theorem as well as the essential idea (log n)² that led to Savitch's theorem on space complexity.^[4]

From 1996-98, he served as Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation, where he headed the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering.

He passed away on 29 Jul 2022 in New York. His obituary was published online by Bangs Funeral Home.

Sources

1. ↑ "New York, New York Passenger and Crew Lists, 1909, 1925-1957," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24TS-CSX : 2 March 2021), Juris Hartmanis, 1950; citing Immigration, New York City, New York, United States, NARA microfilm publication T715 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
2. ↑ "New York, County Naturalization Records, 1791-1980," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPR5-R4WG : 20 August 2019), Juris Aka George Hartman Hartmanis, 1956; citing Naturalization, Tompkins, New York, United States, citing multiple County Clerk offices of New York; FHL microfilm 005396341.
3. ↑ "New York, County Naturalization Records, 1791-1980," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QPRR-QXTN : 20 August 2019), Juris Aka George Hartman Hartmanis, 1956; citing Naturalization, Tompkins, New York, United States, citing multiple County Clerk offices of New York; FHL microfilm 005396341.
4. ↑ The book "Complexity Theory Retrospective" (1990) by Alan L. Selman describes Juris Hartmanis' work on computational complexity.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juris_Hartmanis

• https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q92628

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_Award

• https://cacm.acm.org/magazines/2022/10/264846-in-memoriam-juris-hartmanis-1928-2022/fulltext

• "United States Public Records, 1970-2009", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K5PT-7LQ : 28 November 2019), Juris E Hartmanis, 1967-2008.

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/242171796/juris-hartmanis: accessed 19 May 2023), memorial page for Dr Juris Hartmanis (5 Jul 1928–29 Jul 2022), Find a Grave Memorial ID 242171796, citing Pleasant Grove Cemetery, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York, USA; Maintained by Starfishin (contributor 48860385).