Paris Christos Kanellakis was a computer scientist

Computer scientist

A computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....

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Kanellakis was born in Greece

Greece

Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....

 as the only child of General Eleftherios and Mrs. Argyroula Kanellakis. In 1976, he received a diploma in Electrical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens

National Technical University of Athens

The National Technical University of Athens , sometimes simply known as Athens Polytechnic, is among the oldest and most prestigious higher education institutions of Greece....

. He continued his studies at the graduate level in Electrical Engineering

Electrical engineering

Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...

 and Computer Science

Computer science

Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...

 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

, where he received an MSc

MSC

- Computers:* Mario Strikers Charged* Microsoft Common Console Document, file for the Microsoft Management Console* Microelectronics Support Centre* Microsoft Corporation* MIDI Show Control* Message Sequence Chart...

 degree in 1978 and a PhD

PHD

PHD may refer to:*Ph.D., a doctorate of philosophy*Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*PHD finger, a protein sequence*PHD Mountain Software, an outdoor clothing and equipment company*PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...

 degree in 1982. In 1981, he joined the Computer Science Department of Brown University

Brown University

Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...

 as an assistant professor; he obtained tenure

Tenure

Tenure commonly refers to life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior academic's contractual right not to have his or her position terminated without just cause.-19th century:...

 as an associate professor in 1986, and became a full professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 in 1990.

He died on December 20, 1995 together with his wife, Maria Teresa Otoya, and their children, Alexandra and Stephanos, aboard American Airlines Flight 965

American Airlines Flight 965

American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757 registered , was a scheduled flight from Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida to Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport in Cali, Colombia, which crashed into a mountain in Buga, Colombia on December 20, 1995, killing 151 passengers and 8...

 en route from Miami, Florida

Miami, Florida

Miami is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, the most populous county in Florida and the eighth-most populous county in the United States with a population of 2,500,625...

, to Cali

Calì

Calì, also written in English as Cali, is an Italian surname, widespread mainly in the Ionian side of Sicily.For the surname Calì is assumed the origin of the Greek word kalos , or from its Sanskrit root kali, "time."The surname refers to:...

, Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

 for an annual holiday reunion with his wife's family.

His scientific contributions are in the fields of database theory

Database theory

Database theory encapsulates a broad range of topics related to the study and research of the theoretical realm of databases and database management systems....

—comprising work on deductive database

Deductive database

A Deductive database is a database system that can make deductions based on rules and facts stored in the database. Datalog is the language typically used to specify facts, rules and queries in deductive databases...

s, object-oriented databases, and constraint

Integrity constraints

Integrity constraints are used to ensure accuracy and consistency of data in a relational database. Data integrity is handled in a relational database through the concept of referential integrity...

 databases—as well as in fault-tolerant distributed computation and in type theory

Type theory

In mathematics, logic and computer science, type theory is any of several formal systems that can serve as alternatives to naive set theory, or the study of such formalisms in general...

. He served as an associate editor in a number of respected journals, such as Information and Computation

Information and Computation

Information and Computation is a computer science journal published by Elsevier . The journal was founded in 1957 under its former name Information and Control. The editor-in-chief is A.R. Meyer...

, ACM Transactions on Database Systems

ACM Transactions on Database Systems

The ACM Transactions on Database Systems is one of the journals produced by the Association for Computing Machinery. TODS publishes one volume yearly. Each volume has four issues, which appear in March, June, September and December....

, SIAM Journal on Computing

SIAM Journal on Computing

The SIAM Journal on Computing is a scientific journal focusing on the mathematical and formal aspects of computer science. It is published by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics . As of September 2008, Éva Tardos serves as editor-in-chief.-External links:** on DBLP...

, Theoretical Computer Science

Theoretical Computer Science (journal)

Theoretical Computer Science is a computer science journal published by Elsevier, started in 1975 and covering theoretical computer science. The journal publishes 52 issues a year. It is abstracted and indexed by Scopus and the Science Citation Index...

, and Journal of Logic Programming.

Acknowledging Kanellakis's contributions to computer science the Association for Computing Machinery

Association for Computing Machinery

The Association for Computing Machinery is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009...

 honored him by instituting the Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award

Paris Kanellakis Award

The Paris Kanellakis Theory and Practice Award is granted yearly by the Association for Computing Machinery to honor specific theoretical accomplishments that have had a significant and demonstrable effect on the practice of computing...

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External links

• Paris Kanellakis web site at Brown University
  Brown University
  Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
  
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• Paris C. Kanellakis 1953–1995.