nLab Joseph Goguen

Computer scientist and applied category theorist, 28th June 1941 – 3rd July 2006. His theoretical work includes the algebraic theory of abstract data types, initial model semantics, institutions, order sorted algebra, parameterized programming, database integration, hidden algebra, sheaf semantics of interacting objects, and algebraic semiotics. Very important to computer science was his rôle in founding algebraic specification, including abstract data types, modules and module composition, and the OBJ language family. Goguen wrote A Categorical Manifesto, which tried to encourage the use of category theory in computer science.

Links

Goguen’s Web site at UCSD

Wikipedia entry for Joseph Goguen

In memoriam. By the IFIP Working Group WG1.3 on Foundations of System Specification.

Selected writings

Introducing indexed categories as a tool of categorical semantics in computer science, with fundamental results such as the existence and construction of (co)limits in Grothendieck constructions:

• Andrzej Tarlecki, Rod M. Burstall, Joseph A. Goguen, Some fundamental algebraic tools for the semantics of computation: Part 3. Indexed categories, Theoretical Computer Science 91 2 (1991) 239-264 [doi:10.1016/0304-3975(91)90085-G]

A discussion of various treatments of the notion of a concept in category-theoretic terms:

• Joseph A. Goguen, What is a concept?, (2005). In: Dau, F., Mugnier, ML., Stumme, G. (eds) Conceptual Structures: Common Semantics for Sharing Knowledge. ICCS 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3596. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, (pdf)

category: people