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Alonzo Church (June 14, 1903 – August 11, 1995) was an American mathematician , computer scientist , logician , and philosopher who made major contributions to mathematical logic and the foundations of theoretical computer science . [2] He is best known for the lambda calculus , the Church–Turing thesis , proving the unsolvability of the Entscheidungsproblem ("decision problem"), the Frege–Church ontology , and the Church–Rosser theorem . He also worked on philosophy of language (see e.g. Church 1970). Alon
Alonzo Church was born on June 14, 1903, in Washington, D.C. , where his father, Samuel Robbins Church, was a Justice of the peace [5] and the judge of the Municipal Court for the District of Columbia. He was the grandson of Alonzo Webster Church (1829-1909), United States Senate Librarian from 1881-1901, and great grandson of Alonzo Church , a Professor of Mathematics and Astronomy and 6th President of the University of Georgia. [6] As a young boy, Church was partially blinded by an air gun accident. [7] T
He married Mary Julia Kuczinski in 1925. The couple had three children, Alonzo Jr. (1929), Mary Ann (1933) and Mildred (1938).