Jean-Eric Pin gets 1st-ever Salomaa Prize

Dr Jean-Eric Pin of Paris has won the first-ever Salomaa Prize for his outstanding lifetime work on automation, said a University of Turku press release.

The prize was awarded on Thursday at a ceremony during the annual Developments in Language Theory Symposium (DLT conference) being held in Tokyo. The winner was selected by an international award committee chaired by Professor Juhani Karhumäki.

The award was established by the DLT conference to honour the pioneering work of academician ArtoSalomaa on automata theory. It is intended for outstanding work on the theory of automata, formal languages, and related topics. The award is funded by the University of Turku, the home university of ArtoSalomaa.

Dr Pin, a member of Academia Europaea, is one of the most respected researchers in automata theory. He has published a number of original articles, especially in algebraic automata theory, among others. Currently, he is editing an approximately 1,500-page Handbook of Automata