Public lecture by Turing Award winner Robert Tarjan: My Life with Data Structures

Robert Tarjan will give a lecture “My Life with Data Structures” on Monday, 12 May, at 16:15 in the Delta Study Building, room 1021.

All are warmly invited to attend.

Robert Tarjan reflects on over five decades of research in algorithm design and data structures. He will share key milestones, from foundational breakthroughs like union-find and Fibonacci heaps to more recent developments, offering personal insights into the evolving landscape of theoretical computer science. The talk will highlight both the mathematical elegance and practical impact of data structures, weaving together history, technical depth, and anecdotes from a pioneering career.

Robert Tarjan is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University and a preeminent figure in theoretical computer science. He is renowned for his pioneering work on graph algorithms and data structures, including union-find, Fibonacci heaps, splay trees, and a linear-time algorithm for finding strongly connected components in a directed graph.

Over his career, he has authored hundreds of influential papers that have shaped both theoretical and practical aspects of computer science. His work is widely cited, with around 100,000 citations, reflecting his deep and lasting impact on the field. For his fundamental contributions, he was awarded the Turing Award in 1986, among many other honors.

You may also like the following events from TÜ arvutiteaduse instituut:

• This month, 21st May, 03:45 pm, Data Science Seminar "Decoding Humans: How Data Drives Human-Centric Solutions" in Tartu
• This month, 29th May, 02:00 pm, Tudengiprojektide võistlus 2025 / Student Project Contest 2025 in Tartu