Person: Flajolet, Philippe

Philippe Flajolet was a French mathematician and computer scientist who worked on the analysis of algorithms.

While at the École Polytechnique, Flajolet had become interested in the theory of computing and the theory of languages by reading the works of Louis Comtet, Leonard Euler, Donald Knuth and Srinivasa Ramanujan.
For example (with Jean-Marc Steyaert) On the analysis of tree-matching algorithms (1980), (with Guy Fayolle, Philippe Flajolet, Micha Hofri, and Philippe Jacquet) Analysis of a stack algorithm for random multiple-access communication (1983), Methods in the analysis of algorithms (1983), Mathematical methods in the analysis of algorithms and data structures (1988), and the book, written with Robert Sedgewick, An Introduction to the Analysis of Algorithms (1996).
Flajolet became head of the ALGO group in 1981.
Flajolet received many honours throughout his career.
This part contains Helmut Prodinger and Wojciech Szpankowski's survey article Philippe Flajolet's research in analysis of algorithms and combinatorics.
A conference, 'Philippe Flajolet and Analytic Combinatorics: Conference in the memory of Philippe Flajolet', was held at Paris-Jussieu, 14-16 December 2011.
Most of the talks will form a basis for an introduction to the corresponding chapter in Philippe Flajolet's collected works, to be edited soon.
And Philippe listened, purred, teased, shouted, applauded, and acted up - anything short of throwing a paper airplane at the speaker with a heart drawn on its wings.

Born 1 December 1948, Lyon, France. Died 22 March 2011, Paris, France.

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Thank you to the contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0!

O’Connor, John J; Robertson, Edmund F: MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive