
Michael J. O'Donnell
Professor Emeritus
Department of Computer Science
Biography
Education
BS in Computer Sciences, Purdue University, 1972
PhD in Computer Science, Cornell University, 1976
Research
I am interested in all types of interaction between computation and logic: in software applications, in the foundations of computer science, and in the conceptual foundations of other fields.
I study models for the digital description and production of sound.
I am investigating minimal network infrastructure to support public key cryptography/signature, based on the "nym" idea of self-signed key records.
In the past, I designed and implemented the first lazy functional programming language, defined precisely by the rules of equational logic. I have also investigated computational semantics for nonclassical logics, leading to a new understanding of constructive logic as a logic of proofs that can be communicated accurately in spite of some discrepancies in the language.