Abstract: The effectiveness of logic in computer science spans a wide spectrum of areas, from artificial intelligence to software engineering. Overall, logic, with its fundamental distinction between syntax and semantics, provides computer science with both a unifying foundational framework and a powerful tool for modeling and reasoning about aspects of computation. This fulfills Turing's prediction: "I expect that digital computing machines will eventually stimulate a considerable interest in symbolic logic ... The language in which one communicates with these machines .. forms a sort of symbolic logic."

Bio: Moshe Y. Vardi is the George Professor of Computational Engineering and Chair of Computer Science at Rice University. Prior to joining Rice in 1993, he was at the IBM Almaden Research Center, where he managed the Mathematics and Related Computer Science Department. His research interests include database systems, computational-complexity theory, multi-agent systems, and design specification and verification. Vardi received his Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1981. He is the author and co-author of over 150 technical papers, as well as a book titled "Reasoning about Knowledge". Vardi is the recipient of three IBM Outstanding Innovation Awards and a co-winner of the 2000 Goedel Prize. He is an editor of several international journals and is a Fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery.