Professor David Makinson - MIMS Distinguished Visitor 02-2006/03-2006
Short CV
Professor David Makinson is Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Computer Science, King's College, London and a member of its Group of Logic, Language and Computation. He was educated at the University of Sydney, Australia, graduating in 1961 with Bachelor of Arts and at Oxford University UK (Worcester College), taking degree of Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil) in 1965.
His previous academic appointments include:
- 1980-2001, Programme Specialist, Division of Social Science Research and Policy (SHS/SRP), Sector of Social and Human Sciences, UNESCO, Paris.
- 1965-1980 (and academic year 1982-3): American University of Beirut, Lebanon, as Assistant Professor of Philosophy (1965-9), Associate Professor (1969-75), tenured (as from 1970), Full Professor (1975-83), Chairman of the Department.
- Visiting Professor at the Universities of Buenos Aires and Bahia Blanca (Argentina) and Sao Paulo (Brazil) at various times in 1970, 1972, 1999.
Research Interests
David Makinson's research since 1965 falls into four main areas: the logic of belief change, nonmonotonic reasoning, the logic of norms and directives, and modal logic, with some further contributions in other areas. Perhaps the most frequently cited work is the creation of the so-called AGM account of the logic of belief change, with Carlos Alchourrón and Peter Gärdenfors.
Among his recent publications are:
- Bridges from Classical to Nonmonotonic Logic (London: King's College Publications. Series: Texts in Computing, vol 5, 2005) ISBN 1-904987-00-1.
- Friendliness for logicians, in We Will Show Them! Essays in Honour of Dov Gabbay, vol 2, ed S. Artemov, H. Barringer, A. Garcez, L. Lamb, J. Woods (London: King's College Publications, October 2005), pp 259-292
- What is input/output logic? (with Leendert van der Torre) in Foundations of the Formal Sciences II: Applications of Mathematical Logic in Philosophy and Linguistics, pp163-174. Dordrecht: Kluwer, Trends in Logic Series, vol 17, 2003.
MIMS schedule
Professor Makinson will teach two thirds of the Non-standard Logics MSc unit.
Contact details while at MIMS
Room 1.26, Newman building.
david.makinson(at)kcl.ac.uk
Office Hours: Tues 15h00 - 17h00 or by appointment.