A simple love for math and a long-standing career in mathematics and logic including undergraduate research with former College President John Kemeny and the discovery of a new mathematical computing theory have led to lifetime achievements for Ronald Fagin '67, who won the annual W. Wallace McDowell Award on March 26.
Fagin, the manager of the Foundations of Computer Science at IBM Research, received the honor for his "fundamental and lasting contributions to the theory of databases," according to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Society, which presents the award. Past recipients include John Backus, FORTRAN programming language creator, and Frederick Brooks, the architect of IBM's mainframe computer.
On April 10, Fagin was named an IBM fellow, one of seven employees to receive the company's highest honor this year.
Fagin's first introduction to mathematical theory, however, was actually a chance encounter. At the College, Fagin originally enrolled in a logic course with professor Donald Kreider to fulfill a distributive requirement.
"I had no idea what math logic was about, but I took the class, and Kreider was like a magician," Fagin said. "He was an amazing teacher."
Fagin also took classes taught by Kemeny, with whom he later worked as an undergraduate research assistant. At the time, Kemeny had recently developed BASIC, one of computer science's initial programming languages, with fellow Dartmouth professor Thomas Kurtz.
"I couldn't believe I was getting paid to interact with John Kemeny," Fagin said. "It can't get any better than that."
Fagin recalled that Kemeny kept a bust of Albert Einstein on his desk, as Kemeny worked as the scientist's research assistant while a student at Princeton University. Fagin, who cited Kemeny and Kreider as his greatest undergraduate academic influences, asked him why Einstein would have needed help in math.
"He looked at me and said, Einstein was great at physics, but just okay at math,'" Fagin said.
At the College, Fagin ranked as the number one ping pong player in his dorm, was the underhand softball pitcher to fulfill his athletic requirement, played the clarinet in the Dartmouth College Marching Band and applied his knowledge of math and computer science to real-life situations, he said.
"One of the first programs I did was a Monopoly simulation to figure out what were the best properties on the board," Fagin said. "I used that for strategy when I played."
Fagin's passion eventually led to the formulation of Fagin's Theorem for his doctoral thesis and the creation of the finite model theory field,
Fagin's past work has focused on fuzzy logic, an efficient data combination method used in the Bundled Search system of the IBM Watson computer known for having successfully competed on "Jeopardy!" and Garlic multimedia information systems. Fagin also founded the IBM Almaden Computer Science Theory Group, which he said is the top theory group in the world.
"What we do is lay mathematical foundations but also try to find applications," Fagin, who has worked at IBM since 1973, said. "One of the great things about IBM research is that there's a lot of room for a variety of people in a variety of stuff," he said.
After graduating summa cum laude from Dartmouth with highest distinction in mathematics, Fagin received his PhD in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1973. Fagin worked in the IBM Computer Science Department in Yorktown Heights, N.Y., before moving to the IBM Almaden Research Center in California in 1975, where he currently works.
During his career, Fagin has also traveled overseas, visiting various offices in India and Israel.
Fagin's visits serve as examples "of making sure Ron's expertise is shown within IBM on a global scale," Ari Entin, who works in IBM Communications, said.
Peter Winkler, a mathematics professor and friend of Fagin, called him "one of the founding fathers" of computing theory and a "well-loved person" in the field.
Fagin also won the 2011 IEEE Technical Achievement Award for his contributions to the theory of rank and score aggregation, the 2004 ACM Edgar F. Codd Award for work in databases and a series of honors and accolades from IBM, including an IBM Corporate Award.
"If you develop something beautiful mathematically, it's not at all surprising that there are many ways it can be applied," Fagin said.
