Chapter 14: Rod Downey: Computability, Complexity Theory, Reverse Mathematics and Algorithmic Information Theory

Professor Rod Downey, http://www.mcs.vuw.ac.nz/~downey/, is a very well-known mathematician and theoretical computer scientist. He works in classical and applied computability theory and in complexity theory (mainly parameterised complexity), reverse mathematics and algorithmic information theory. Professor Downey is not only “world famous in New Zealand” (as a local saying goes in this country), but one of New Zealand's (NZs) best-known mathematicians. He has won numerous awards for his work on logic and his work on theoretical computer science. These include the inaugural MacLaurin Fellowship, a James Cook Fellowship, an Isaac Newton Fellowship, the Hamilton Prize of the RSNZ, New Zealand (NZ) Association of Scientists Research Medal, the Hector Medal, ASL Schoenfield Prize, EATCS Nerode prize, the NZMS Research Award and the Vice Chancellor's Award for Research. He was elected a Fellow of the ACM, AMS, Aust MS, RSNZ and the NZMS. He is an editor of numerous journals and chaired the prizes committee of the Association for Symbolic Logic. He gave an invited lecture at the International Congress of Mathematicians (2006), and has given invited addresses at numerous conferences including the International Congress of Logic Methodology and Philosophy of Science, and the IEEE Conference on Computational Complexity. He is also an accomplished surfer and Scottish country dancer…