Blue Balloon

I think it’s worth spreading the word that Joseph (Sifis) Sifakis, a computer scientist born in my home town, won the Turing Award for 2007. He won the prize for establishing the foundations of Automatic Verification Technology (or Model Checking). The news has been out several days now but I do not have an exact idea for the reception it received back in Greece. The French people seem to be pretty happy though - he is the founder of the Verimag Lab in Grenoble.

For those readers of my blog who can read greek (thousands of them), here is an interview he gave to Skai. Among other things, he suggests that there should be greater connection between the educational system and the industry.