John E Hopcroft

John Hopcroft's coauthored texts on formal languages and their relation to automata (1968) and on the design and analysis of algorithms (1974) gave direction to the field and set a standard for all to live up to. They were used throughout computer science academia for decades to teach students and faculty alike how one should think about theory and algorithms.

Hopcroft has also been a prolific, influential, and inspiring PhD advisor, advising 30 PhDs in his first 30 years as a faculty member. His advisees learned how to do research from him, but they also absorbed his sense of discrimination, his standard of excellence, and his ideas on service to the community. In turn, many of them serve in influential positions in academia and industry ---among his PhD students are the president of an Israeli university, a MacArthur Fellow, a vice president of a computing research firm, and chairs of departments.

Throughout his career, Hopcroft has helped the field by serving on innumerable national and international committees. The respect for his views and his work become evident when one considers that he has served on the National Science Board, which is the US science policy advisor to the President and the Congress, as well as several committees of the National Research Council. He has also been working to improve science and technology education in developing countries such as Vietnam and Chile.