Bruno Courcelle is a French mathematician and computer scientist, best known for Courcelle's theorem in graph theory.

Bruno Courcelle
CitizenshipFrench
Alma materFrench Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation
Known forCourcelle's theorem
Scientific career
FieldsGraph theory, Computer science
InstitutionsUniversity of Bordeaux
Thesis Application de la théorie des langages à la théorie des schémas de programmes  (1976)
Doctoral advisorMaurice Nivat

Life edit

Courcelle earned his Ph.D. in 1976 from the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation, then called IRIA, under the supervision of Maurice Nivat. He then joined the Laboratoire Bordelais de Recherche en Informatique (LaBRI) at the University of Bordeaux 1, where he remained for the rest of his career.[1] He has been a senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France since 2007.[2]

A workshop in honor of Courcelle's retirement was held in Bordeaux in 2012.[1][3] Courcelle was the first recipient of the S. Barry Cooper Prize of the Association Computability in Europe in 2020.[4] In 2022, Courcelle was awarded the EATCS-IPEC Nerode Prize.[5]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Courcelle protested against vaccination mandates in France.[6]


Work edit

He is known for Courcelle's theorem, which combines second-order logic, the theory of formal languages, and tree decompositions of graphs to show that a wide class of algorithmic problems in graph theory have efficient solutions.

Notable publications also include:

  • Bruno Courcelle (1983). "Fundamental Properties of Infinite Trees". Theoretical Computer Science. 25: 95–169.
  • Bruno Courcelle (1990). "Recursive Applicative Program Schemes". In Jan van Leeuwen (ed.). Formal Models and Semantics. Handbook of Theoretical Computer Science. Vol. B. Elsevier. pp. 459–492. ISBN 0-444-88074-7.
  • Bruno Courcelle (1999). "Hierarchical Graph Decompositions Defined by Grammars and Logical Formulas (invited lecture)". In Paliath Narendran; Michaël Rusinowitch (eds.). Rewriting Techniques and Applications, 10th Int. Conf., RTA-99. LNCS. Vol. 1631. Springer-Verlag. pp. 90–91.

References edit

  1. ^ a b Bruno Courcelle, text of remarks presented by Maurice Nivat at Courcelle workshop, retrieved 2014-06-24.
  2. ^ Bruno Courcelle Archived March 15, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Institut Universitaire de France, retrieved 2014-06-24.
  3. ^ Bruno's workshop, June 18-20, 2012, LaBRI, Bordeaux, retrieved 2014-06-24.
  4. ^ "Association CiE website: 2020 S. Barry Cooper Prize awarded to Bruno Courcelle". 3 June 2020. Retrieved 4 Aug 2022.
  5. ^ "EATCS-IPEC Nerode Prize". Retrieved 4 Aug 2022.
  6. ^ Amiel, Sandrine (2021-07-26). "Who are France's anti-vaccine rule protesters and what do they want?". euronews. Retrieved 2021-08-09.

External links edit