Alain Colmerauer

Alain Colmerauer (24 January 1941 – 12 May 2017) was a French computer scientist. He was a professor at Aix-Marseille University, and the creator of the logic programming language Prolog.

Early life Alain Colmerauer was born on 24 January 1941 in Carcassonne. He graduated from the Grenoble Institute of Technology, and he earned a PhD from the Ensimag in Grenoble.

Career Colmerauer spent 1967–1970 as assistant professor at the University of Montreal,

Colmerauer won an award from the regional council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, and in 1985 the Michel Monpetit Award, from the French Academy of Sciences. In 1986, he was made a knight of the Legion of Honour by the French government. and in 1997 the Association for Logic Programming bestowed upon him and fourteen other select researchers the title of Founder of Logic Programming. He then received the Association for Constraint Programming's Research Excellence Award in 2008. He was also a correspondent of the French Academy of Sciences in the area of mathematics.

Death Colmerauer died on 12 May 2017.

The ALP Alain Colmerauer Prize The ALP Alain Colmerauer Prize (in short: Alain Colmerauer Prize) is organized by the Association for Logic Programming. The Prize is given for recent accomplishments and practical advances in Prolog-inspired computing, understood in a broad sense, where foundational, technological, and practical contributions are eligible with proven evidence or potential for the future development of Logic Programming. The award of the inaugural edition of the Prize in 2022, in cooperation with the Prolog Heritage Association, was a highlight of the Year of Prolog celebrating 50 years of Prolog and logic programming.