Bernard Chazelle

Bernard Chazelle (born November 5, 1955) is a French computer scientist. He is the Eugene Higgins Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University. Much of his work is in computational geometry, where he is known for his study of algorithms, such as linear-time triangulation^[2] of a simple polygon, as well as major complexity results, such as lower bound techniques based on discrepancy theory.^[3] He is also known for his invention of the soft heap data structure and the most asymptotically efficient known deterministic algorithm for finding minimum spanning trees.^[4]

Bernard Chazelle
Born	(1955-11-05) November 5, 1955 (age 69) Clamart, France
Citizenship	France United States [1]
Alma mater	École des mines de Paris Yale University
Occupation	Computer scientist
Spouse	Celia Chazelle
Children	2, including Damien
Scientific career
Fields	Computer science
Institutions	Princeton University
Doctoral advisor	David P. Dobkin
Doctoral students	Nadia Heninger

Early life

Chazelle was born in Clamart, France, the son of Marie-Claire (née Blanc) and Jean Chazelle.^{[citation needed]} He grew up in Paris, France, where he received his bachelor's degree and master's degree in applied mathematics at the École des mines de Paris in 1977. Then, at the age of 21, he attended Yale University in the United States, where he received his PhD in computer science in 1980 under the supervision of David P. Dobkin.^[5]

Career

Chazelle accepted professional appointments at institutions such as Brown, NEC, Xerox PARC, the Institute for Advanced Study, and the Paris institutions École normale supérieure, École polytechnique, Inria, and Collège de France. He is a fellow of the ACM, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and NEC, as well as a member of the European Academy of Sciences. He has also written essays about music and politics.^[6]

Personal life

Chazelle is married to Celia Chazelle. He is the father of director Damien Chazelle, the youngest person in history to win an Academy Award for Best Director, and Anna Chazelle, an entertainer.

Works

• The Discrepancy Method: Randomness and Complexity. Cambridge University Press. 2000. ISBN 978-0-521-00357-5.

See also

• Chazelle polyhedron