Klaus Samelson

Klaus Samelson (born December 21, 1918 in Strasbourg in Alsace ; † May 25, 1980 in Munich ) was a German mathematician , physicist and computer science pioneer. He played a key role in the development of program-controlled electronic computing systems and is known for his contributions to compiler construction and algorithms for the machine translation of mathematical formulas that are based on the use of a basement , the principle of which he invented together with Friedrich L. Bauer .

Live and act

Klaus Samelson spent his childhood in Breslau . His father was a professor of paediatrics there. His older brother was Hans Samelson , the younger brother was called Franz . The National Socialists prevented Klaus Samelson from enrolling at a university. So he had to wait until 1946 before he could start studying mathematics, physics and astronomy at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich .

After graduating in 1950, he worked temporarily as a class teacher before returning to university. He received his doctorate in physics from Fritz Bopp with a dissertation on a quantum mechanical problem of unipolar induction that had been posed by Arnold Sommerfeld .

Samelson began to be interested in numerical mathematics , and when the electrical engineer Hans Piloty and the mathematics professor Robert Sauer started developing computers, he accepted a position with them at the Mathematical Institute of the Technical University of Munich .

Here his scientific direction changed. His first publications were based on Sauer's interests in ultrasound problems and the accuracy of numerical calculations of eigenvalues with digital computers. Piloty, Friedrich L. Bauer and Samelson also worked on the design of the PERM , a computer that was partially based on the concept of the Whirlwind . The PERM was completed in 1955 and the team continued the research on "automatic programming" that Bauer began in 1951.

Soon after, Samelson had a strong influence on the development of computer science as a new scientific discipline. Together with Friedrich L. Bauer, who also had Fritz Bopp as his doctoral supervisor, he studied the structure of programming languages with the aim of finding efficient algorithms for their translation into machine language. They discovered the principle of the stack memory and were convinced that this principle should be the basis for the translation of programming languages ​​and the runtime systems of block-structured programming languages. This was a breakthrough in computer system modeling and design. In 1957, together with Friedrich L. Bauer, he submitted the patent for the stack storage principle (basement principle).

Samelson played a key role in the design of ALGOL 58 and ALGOL 60 . The Samelson principle is named after him, a design recommendation he formulated.

From 1958 to 1963 he was an associate professor for mathematics at the University of Mainz . He then received a chair for mathematics at the Technical University of Munich , where he began to develop curricula for the then newly emerging subject of computer science with Friedrich L. Bauer . Samelson was a member of the International Federation for Information Processing and the editor of the scientific journal Acta Informatica when it started in 1971.

Klaus Samelson was married to his long-time colleague Ursula Hill-Samelson , who had helped develop an ALGOL 60 compiler in Mainz. In May 1980 he died of cancer at the age of 61. His scientific legacy was acquired by the Deutsches Museum .

Honors

• In 1987 the square in front of the newly occupied building of the computer science department of the University of Hildesheim was named after Klaus Samelson.

Publications (selection)

• with Alan J. Perlis : Preliminary Report: International Algebraic Language. In: Communications of the ACM. 1 (12), 1958, pp. 8-22
• Factoring polynomials through functional iteration. Publishing house of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, Munich 1959
• with Friedrich L. Bauer: Sequential Formula Translation. In: Electronic computing systems. 1 (4), 1959, pp. 176-182
• with Edsger W. Dijkstra , Willy Heise & Alan J. Perlis ALGOL Sub-Committee Report - Extensions. In: Communications of the ACM. 2 (9), 1959, p. 24
• with Friedrich L. Bauer: The problem of a common language, especially for scientific numeral work. In: Information Processing. Proceedings of the International conference on information processing, UNESCO, Paris 15–20 June 1959. UNESCO, Paris 1960, pp. 120–124 ( PDF; 1.774 MB )
• with John W. Backus , Friedrich L. Bauer, Julien Green, Charles Katz, John McCarthy, Alan J. Perlis, Heinz Rutishauser, Bernard Vauquois, Joseph Henry Wegstein, Adriaan van Wijngaarden & Michael Woodger: Report on the Algorithmic Language ALGOL 60. In: Communications of the ACM. 3 (5), 1960, pp. 299-314
• with Friedrich L. Bauer: Sequential Formula Translation. In: Communications of the ACM. 3 (2), 1960, pp. 76-83
• Comments on ALGOL 60 Maintenance and Revisions. In: ALGOL Bulletin. Issue 12, April 1961
• Programming Languages ​​and their Processing. In: Information processing. Proceedings of the IFIP congress 62. North-Holland, Amsterdam 1963, pp. 487-492
• with Jürgen Eickel, Manfred Paul & Friedrich L. Bauer: A Syntax Controlled Generator of Formal Language Processors. In: Communications of the ACM. 6 (8), 1963, pp. 451-455
• with John W. Backus, Friedrich L. Bauer, Julien Green, Charles Katz, John McCarthy, Alan J. Perlis, Heinz Rutishauser, Bernard Vauquois, Joseph Henry Wegstein, Adriaan van Wijngaarden, Michael Woodger & Peter Naur : Revised Report on the Algorithmic Language ALGOL 60. In: Communications of the ACM. 6 (1), 1963, pp. 1-17
• with Friedrich L. Bauer (Ed.): Language Hierarchies and Interfaces. International Summer School. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg / New York 1976, ISBN 3-540-07994-7
• (Ed.): ECI Conference 1976. Proceedings of the 1st European Cooperation in Informatics, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, August 9-12, 1976. Springer, 1976, ISBN 0387078045
• with Rupert Gnatz (Ed.): Methods of computer science for computer-aided design and construction. GI symposium, Munich, 19./21. October 1977. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg / New York 1977, ISBN 3-540-08473-8
• Lines of development in computer science. In: Sigram Schindler & Wolfgang K. Giloi (eds.): GI - 8th annual conference. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg / New York 1978, ISBN 3-540-09038-X , pp. 132-148
• with Friedrich L. Bauer, Manfred Broy, Walter Dosch, Rupert Gnatz, Bernd Krieg-Brückner, Alfred Laut, Manfred Luckmann, Thomas Matzner, Bernhard Möller, Helmuth Partsch, Peter Pepper, Ralf Steinbrüggen, Martin Wirsing & Hans Wössner: Programming in a Wide Spectrum Language: A Collection of Examples. In: Science of Computer Programming. 1 (1-2), 1981, pp. 73-114
• with Friedrich L. Bauer: Sequential Formula Translation (Reprint). In: Communications of the ACM. 26 (1), 1983, pp. 9-13
• with Friedrich L. Bauer, Rudolf Berghammer, Manfred Broy, Walter Dosch, Franz Geiselbrechtinger, Rupert Gnatz, E. Hangel, Wolfgang Hesse, Bernd Krieg-Brückner, Alfred Laut, Thomas Matzner, Bernhard Möller, Friederike Nickl, Helmuth Partsch, Peter Pepper , Martin Wirsing & Hans Wössner: The Munich Project CIP. Volume I: The Wide Spectrum Language CIP-L. Springer, Berlin [a. a.] 1985, ISBN 3-540-15187-7
• Computing systems , in Robert Sauer , István Szabó : The mathematical tools of the engineer , Springer Verlag, Volume 3, 1968

literature

• Friedrich L. Bauer , Andrei P. Ershov, Manfred Paul & Alan J. Perlis : Klaus Samelson. In: Acta Informatica. Vol. 15, Number 1, December 1980, DOI: 10.1007 / BF00269806 , pp. 1–2 (obituary)
• Heinz Götze & Friedrich L. Bauer: Klaus Samelson. In: Numerical Mathematics. Volume 36, 1980/81, DOI: 10.1007 / BF01396753 , p. 109 (obituary)
• Dov Tamari : Moritz Pasch (1843–1930) - father of modern axiomatics. His time with Klein and Hilbert and his posterity. A correction. Shaker Verlag, 2007, ISBN 978-3832262440 , pp. 288–302 (Chapter: Siegfried Samelson Family: Die Trödie des Haus Samelson )

Web links

• Literature by and about Klaus Samelson in the catalog of the German National Library
• Klaus Samelson at the DBLP at the University of Trier
• Academic descendants of Klaus Samelson in Mathematics Genealogy Project (English)
• An Interview with Fritz Bauer von Ulf Hashagen, Project The History of Numerical Analysis and Scientific Computing of the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics , July 21 and 26, 2004 (PDF; 185 kB)

Footnotes

1. ^ Friedrich L. Bauer: Fritz Hartogs - Fate of a Jewish Mathematician in Munich. In: Historical Notes on Computer Science. Springer, Berlin / Heidelberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-540-85789-1 , pp. 208-216 ( PDF; 682 kB )
2. ↑ Klaus Samelson: Comments on the theory of unipolar induction and related effects. Dissertation. Munich 1951
3. ^ Deutsches Museum: Samelson's estate, Klaus (1918–1980)
4. ↑ Friedrich L. Bauer (Ed.): 40 Years of Computer Science in Munich 1967–2007. Festschrift. Informatik-Club eV, 2007, p. 66/67 40 years of informatics in Munich: 1967 - 2007 ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Festschrift, edited by Friedrich L. Bauer, (PDF; 9.2 MB) 
5. ↑ Map section at openstreetmap.org
6. ↑ Building plan