Scott Awarded Barwise Prize
Adam KohlhaasTuesday, February 24, 2026Print this page.
Dana Scott, the Hillman University Professor of Computer Science, Philosophy and Mathematical Logic (Emeritus), has received the 2025 K. Jon Barwise Prize from the American Philosophical Association.
The prize recognizes significant and sustained contributions to areas of philosophy relevant to computer science, including logic, philosophy of language and formal semantics.
Scott, who received the 1976 A.M. Turing Award for joint work with Michael Rabin on automata theory, is widely regarded as a foundational figure in mathematical logic and theoretical computer science. His work with Rabin introduced the concept of nondeterministic computing machines, reshaping the theoretical framework of computation.
A student of Alonzo Church and doctoral adviser, with Solomon Feferman, to Barwise himself, Scott advised 52 doctoral students and has more than 670 academic descendants, according to the Mathematics Genealogy Project. His scholarship spans modal logic, formal semantics, model theory, set theory, automata theory and the theory of programming languages. His work bridges philosophy and computer science in ways that have influenced generations of researchers.
Scott also built a reputation as a teacher of philosophy, logic and computer science over a career that included appointments at the University of Chicago; the University of California, Berkeley; Stanford University; Princeton University; the University of Oxford; and Carnegie Mellon University.
In addition to the Turing Award, his honors include the 1997 Rolf Schock Prize in Logic and Philosophy, the American Mathematical Society's Leroy P. Steele Prize and the Gold Medal of the Russian Sobolev Institute of Mathematics.
The Barwise Prize underscores Scott's enduring impact at the intersection of philosophy and computing.
For more information, visit the American Philosophical Association website.
Aaron Aupperlee | 412-268-9068 | aaupperlee@cmu.edu