Friday, 2 October 2015

Professor John Mylopoulos is Professor Emeritus of the University of Trento

The ceremony was held October 1 at the Department of Information engineering and computer science

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Professor John Mylopoulos is Professor Emeritus of the University of Trento 

A man of “connections”, interested not only at things but the relation among them, interested in going further and deeper, to bring to light the complexity of the world by creating virtuous contaminations among related spheres.

It is a portrait depicted by the many colleagues, PhDs and friends of the Department of Information engineering and computer science as of an open and brilliant academic. An important title, which underlines the value of a career dedicated to the improvement research in the field of Computer science and to the growing of the Trento Department, which he contributed to establish in 2002.

The title has been awarded October 1 in the Aula Magna of the Polo Scientifico e Tecnologico ”Fabio Ferrari” in Povo, by the rector Paolo Collini; students, PhDs, professors and staff of the Department were present at the ceremony.

«His role has been fundamental to create the conditions for the birth and the development of the Department and to give life at the degree in Computer Science and the Doctoral School, by bringing in his overseas  experience and by been a powerful point of attraction for students and researchers», remarked Gian Pietro Picco, former director of the Department and Mylopoulos colleague. “His presence among us was not at all formal. He had an active role within the Department, not only for the organisation but most of all to promote the internationalisation of the Department. Many of the professors’ calls we were able to produce in these years were made possible by his contacts. In Trento, on the scientific side, he contributed to create a solid research group in the area of Database and one in  the area of Software Engineering".

Carlo Ghezzi, professor at the Milano Polytechnic, recounted the long and intense professional career of professor Mylopoulos; today Ghezzi held for Mylopoulos the traditional laudatio: «A person that had a grand influence because of his research work. First and foremost on researchers, because many of them took the cues from his studies. He laid the bases for other to pursue the researches. The citations attest this great recognition from the scientific community: Mylopoulos is, indeed, one of the more cited professor in his field and in fact he retains the “birthright” of a number of important research works. He has the credit to have educated, with his teaching and his research doctorate, an enormous number of researchers, who, in turn, have contributed to the progress of knowledge».

From artificial intelligence, to software engineering, and to database, the research work of Mylopoulos crosses various areas. A side which allowed him to achieve numerous awards, on top of the prestigious founding of the European Research Council in 2010 for the project "Lucretius: Foundations for Software Evolution”.

John Mylopoulos
Professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, since 2005 John Mylopoulos is professor of the highest repute of Computer Science at the University of Trento and from today professor emeritus of the Trentino Atheneum.
After achieving the research doctorate at the Princeton University on 1970, he starts his academic career at the Department of Computer Science at the University of Toronto, where he has the opportunity to pursue his interests in the field of Computer Science (conceptual modelling, requirements engineering, data semantics e knowledge management). This scientific activity earned him the prestigious Peter P. Chen award for his relevant scientific contribution in the field of Conceptual Modelling. 
He has been awarded the rank of fellow of the Association for the progress of artificial intelligence (AAA), of the European Commission for the artificial intelligence (ECCAI) and of the Royal Society of Canada (Academy of Sciences). He organised and chaired the program committee of important international conferences dedicated to the field of artificial intelligence, of database engineering and software. He is, at present, co-editor of “Lecture Notes”, in the series Business Information Processing (LNBIP) published by Springer-Verlag.
His research interests appertain to: conceptual modelling, requirements engineering, data semantics e knowledge management.