Boris Trakhtenbrot | |
Birth Date: | 19 February 1921 |
Birth Place: | Brichevo, Bessarabia |
Death Place: | Rehovot, Israel |
Alma Mater: | Ukrainian Academy of Science |
Thesis Title: | Decidability Problems for Finite Classes and Definitions of Finite Sets |
Thesis Year: | 1950 |
Doctoral Advisor: | Pyotr Novikov |
Boris (Boaz) Abramovich Trakhtenbrot (Russian: Борис Авраамович Трахтенброт, Hebrew: בועז טרכטנברוט; 19 February 1921 – 19 September 2016) was a Russian-Israeli mathematician in logic, algorithms, theory of computation, and cybernetics.
Trakhtenbrot was born into a Jewish family in Brichevo, northern Bessarabia (now Tîrnova, Moldova).[1] He studied at the Moldovan State Pedagogical Institute in Kishinev, Chernivtsi University, and the Ukrainian Academy of Science's Mathematical Institute, completing a Ph.D. at the latter institution in 1950.
He worked at Akademgorodok, Novosibirsk during the 1960s and 1970s.[2] [3] In 1964 Trakhtenbrot discovered and proved a fundamental result in theoretical computer science called the gap theorem.[4] He also discovered and proved the theorem in logic, model theory, and computability theory now known as Trakhtenbrot's theorem.[5]
After immigrating to Israel in 1981, he became a professor in the Faculty of Exact Sciences at Tel Aviv University, and continued as professor emeritus until his death. He died on 19 September 2016, at the age of 95.