Taylor Booth


Taylor Lockwood Booth was a mathematician known for his work in automata theory.
One of his fundamental works is Sequential Machines and Automata Theory. It is a wide-ranging book meant for specialists, written for both theoretical computer scientists as well as electrical engineers. It deals with state minimization techniques, Finite state machines, Turing machines, Markov processes, and undecidability.

Education

Booth studied at the University of Connecticut, where he received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees.

Professional career

At his alma mater Booth was professor at the "Computer Science and Engineering" department.
He was the founder and director of the Computer Applications & Research Center at the University of Connecticut's School of Engineering. In 1981 the center was created to support the school's growing need for centralized computing research and development services. After his death the center was renamed to Taylor L. Booth Center for Computer Applications and Research or in its shorter form the Booth Research Center. In 2002 the Booth Research Center and the Advanced Technology Institute, another center at the School of Engineering, merged into the Booth Engineering Center for Advanced Technology.
Booth was the first president of the Computing Sciences Accreditation Board, Inc., meanwhile renamed to CSAB, Inc., which was founded in 1984.

Awards and honors

Professor Booth received following awards and honors:
After Booth's death, the IEEE Computer Society established the Taylor L. Booth Education Award, to keep his name in memory. The award is given annually for individuals with an "outstanding record in computer science and engineering education".