Background
Valiant, Leslie Gabriel was born on March 28, 1949. Son of Leslie and Eva Julia Valiant.
university professor computer scientist
Valiant, Leslie Gabriel was born on March 28, 1949. Son of Leslie and Eva Julia Valiant.
Bachelor, Kings College, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 1970. Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation, Imperial College, London, 1973. Doctor of Philosophy, University Warwick, United Kingdom, 1974.
He is currently the T. Jefferson Coolidge Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics at Harvard University. Valiant is world-renowned for his work in theoretical computer science. Among his many contributions to complexity theory, he introduced the notion of #P-completeness to explain why enumeration and reliability problems are intractable.
He also introduced the "probably approximately correct" (Public Affairs Committee) model of machine learning that has helped the field of computational learning theory grow, and the concept of holographic algorithms.
His earlier work in automata theory includes an algorithm for context-free parsing, which is (as of 2010) still the asymptotically fastest known. He also works in computational neuroscience focusing on understanding memory and learning.
Valiant"s 2013 book is: Nature"s Algorithms for Learning and Prospering in a Complex World (Basic, ). In it he argues, among other things, that evolutionary biology cannot explain the rate at which evolution occurs, writing, for example, "The evidence for Darwin"s general schema for evolution being essentially correct is convincing to the great majority of biologists.
This author has been to enough natural history museums to be convinced himself.
All this, however, does not mean the current theory of evolution is adequately explanatory. At present the theory of evolution can offer no account of the rate at which evolution progresses to develop complex mechanisms or to maintain them in changing environments." Valiant started teaching at Harvard University in 1982 and is currently the T. Jefferson Coolidge Professor of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics in the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Prior to 1982 he taught at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Leeds, and the University of Edinburgh.
Royal Society; National Academy of Sciences]
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society (London), a Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences (United States of America).
Married Gayle Lynne Dyckoff, 1977. Children: Paul A., Gregory J.