Mads Tofte was born on April 20, 1959. He is a Danish computer scientist who has worked mainly on functional programming and the Standard ML language.
Education
Tofte was born in Lyngby, Denmark, and grew up in Holbæk, Denmark. He studied computer science and mathematics at the University of Copenhagen, where he earned an MSc degree (with supervisor Neil D. Jones) in 1984. Later, he studied at the University of Edinburgh, where he received a PhD degree in 1988 (advised by Robin Milner). In 2007, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Kingston University.
Research and career
In his 1984 MSc thesis and earlier work, he studied and created the CERES compiler generator with Neil D. Jones. He showed that (1) a compiler generator is a type of compiler that creates compilers from language definitions; and (2) under certain conditions, a language definition can be used to create a compiler generator. This idea is closely related to self-application in partial evaluation.
In his PhD thesis, he developed and proved that the first sound type system for ML-style polymorphic references works correctly. This was an important problem that had not yet been solved. He also created a version of the module system used in the Standard ML programming language.
Mads Tofte is a co-author of the Definition of Standard ML and its Commentary, which is likely the most detailed description of any realistic programming language. He also helped create the ML Kit, a program that follows the structure of the Standard ML definition closely.
Later, he worked with Jean-Pierre Talpin to develop region inference, a method for analyzing programs and managing memory that reduces or avoids the need for garbage collection. This work was first published in 1994 and later won the ACM POPL 1994 Most Influential Paper Award in 2005.
In the late 1990s, he collaborated with Fritz Henglein and others to create a type system and a tool called AnnoDomini to help solve the Year 2000 problem in COBOL software. The tool finds all date-related data fields in old programs. This work was presented in a keynote speech at POPL 1999.
In April 1999, he became the first managing director of the IT University of Copenhagen. He was responsible for starting the university, hiring staff, recruiting students, and designing study programs. The first students began classes in September 1999. Since 2003, he has served as vice chancellor of the university.
In April 2018, it was announced that he would leave the IT University of Copenhagen at the end of the year. In January 2019, he stated that he would move to another country to be with his daughter, because Danish immigration laws prevented her from entering Denmark.
Awards
- In 2002, the IDG IT award (IT-prisen) was given for leadership at the IT University of Copenhagen.
- In 2005, the ACM POPL '94 Most Influential Paper Award was received along with Jean-Pierre Talpin.