Paul M.B. Vitanyi

CWI and Computer Science, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Curator and author

• Turing machine
• (2009) Paul M.B. Vitanyi

• Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov
• (2007) Paul M.B. Vitanyi

• Applications of algorithmic information theory
• (2007) Ming Li, Paul M.B. Vitanyi

Author

• Algorithmic probability
• (2007) Marcus Hutter, Shane Legg, Paul M.B. Vitanyi

Articles sponsored or reviewed

• Algorithmic information theory
• (2007) Marcus Hutter

Recognized contributor

• Algorithmic randomness
• (2007) Rodney G. Downey, Jan Reimann

FEATURED AUTHOR

SCHOLARPEDIA ARTICLES

Algorithmic probability

Scholarpedia, 2(8):2572. (2007).
(with Marcus Hutter and Shane Legg)

Andrey Nikolaevich Kolmogorov

Scholarpedia, 2(2):2798. (2007).

Applications of algorithmic
information theory

Scholarpedia, 2(5):2658. (2007).

Turing machine

Scholarpedia, 4(3):6240. (2009).
(with Ming Li)

Paul M.B. Vitanyi

Paul M.B. Vitanyi (b. July 21, 1944) is a CWI Fellow at the National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in the Netherlands, CWI, and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Amsterdam. He received his Ph.D. from the Free University Amsterdam (1978).

Vitanyi's professional activities include membership of the editorial boards of Distributed Computing (1987-2003), Information Processing Letters, Theory of Computing Systems, Parallel Processing Letters, International Journal of Foundations of Computer Science, Entropy, Information, Journal of Computer and Systems Sciences (guest editor), and elsewhere. His most important honors are: Ridder in the Dutch Knighthood (2007), highest professor rank at the University of Amsterdam (2005), and the Kolmogorov Medal (2003).

Vitanyi is the author of more than 200 research articles and several books in fields such as cellular automata, computational complexity, distributed and parallel computing, machine learning and prediction, physics of computation, Kolmogorov complexity, information theory, and quantum computing. The co-authored book with Ming Li, An Introduction to Kolmogorov Complexity and its Applications, became a bedside and standard reference book for undergraduates to experts in the field. It, or parts of it, were translated in Russian, Chinese, and Japanese.

(originally featured 28 March 2011)

Previously featured authors

Author profile by Madalina Erascu)

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