> Assunto: Ruy de Queiroz
> De:      "Eric Allender" <allender@cs.rutgers.edu>
> Data:    Qui, Janeiro 25, 2007 3:14 pm
> Para:    laender@dcc.ufmg.br
>          celso@inf.puc-rio.br
>          celso@inf.puc-rio.br
>          flavio@inf.ufrgs.br
>          pacca@tci.ufal.br
>          jcmaldon@icmc.sc.usp.br
>          virgilio@dcc.ufmg.br
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I understand that the seven of you are considering the international
> standing of Prof. Ruy de Queiroz, in connection with the question of
> whether his research grant should be renewed.  Ruy has requested that I
> contact you about this, and share my opinion.
>
> I am happy to comply.
>
> First, let me attest to the high regard in which the WoLLIC conferences
> are held in the international research community.  (Ruy has been the
> prime force behind this series.)
>
> I became aware of the WoLLIC workshops in the early 1990's because of
> the publicity that was circulated through various e-mail lists that
> announce conferences in the theoretical computer science community.  It
> was apparent to me that my own research area (computational complexity
> theory)
> was not the primary focus of the conference, but my interest was aroused
> since my work does touch on logic, which is the main topic of the
> workshops.  The thing that initially attracted my attention was the
> impressive list of invited speakers.  Many of these invited speakers had
> made important contributions to my own area of complexity theory, and
> others were  known to me through the DIMACS Special Year on Logic and
> Algorithms, which I co-organized with Moshe Vardi and Bob Kurshan in
> 1995-1996.  The list of invited speakers reads like a virtual Who's Who;
> here are some particularly impressive names who were invited prior to
> 2003: Martin Abadi, Vaughan Pratt, Andreas Blass, Amir Pnueli, Yuri
> Gurevich, Moshe Vardi, Sam Buss, Edmund Clarke, Phokion Kolaitis, Alan
> Woods, Toniann Pitassi, Dexter Kozen, Jouko Vaananen, Felipe Cucker,
> Erich Graedel, Rohit Parikh, Igor Walukiewicz.
>
> Thus I felt immensely honored to be invited to speak at the 2003
> conference; I was delighted to accept.  I found the conference to be
> extremely well-organized, with enthusiastic participants and
> high-quality presentations.
>
> I truly believe that this series has been an important factor in the
> continuing improvement of graduate education in logic and theoretical
> computer science in Brazil (and, more generally,
> in Latin America).  It serves the dual purpose of exposing the faculty
> and students to leading researchers, and of increasing the visibility of
> the South American research community in the eyes of the invited
> speakers.  Perhaps I am dwelling too much on the outstanding series of
> invited speakers; I should point out that each year there are also many
> excellent contributed papers (from Brazil and also many from abroad).
>
> The conference is no longer as closely connected with Brazil as it was
> formerly.  This can be interpreted two ways; in one sense, it is a
> symptom of a lack of systematic support from
> the Brazilian government that caused the organizers to pursue the option
> of continuing the series outside of Brazil.  On a more positive note, it
> is a sign of the good reputation enjoyed by WoLLIC,
> and of the maturity that the conference has gained, that researchers in
> France and at Stanford embraced the idea of hosting WoLLIC.
>
> As another objective mark of the high regard in which WoLLIC is held,
> note that the program committee each year contains several leading
> members of the research community.  (I served in 2005.)  Busy,
> well-respected researchers don't bother serving on the program committees
> of conferences that they don't hold a good opinion of.  Certainly I have
> turned down many requests to serve on such committees in the past; I
> served on the WoLLIC committee because I thought it was worthwhile.
>
> Ruy's good standing in the international logic community can be verified
> by observing that he was awarded a Tinker Visiting Professorship at
> Stanaford, his service as an editor for respected journals and series,
> and his service on the council of the Association for Symbolic Logic.
> These factors might deserve to be taken into consideration, in addition
> to publication counts.
>
> If you feel that additional clarification on any of these points would
> be useful, please do contact me.
>
> -- Eric Allender
> Chair, Rutgers Dept. of Computer Science
> ACM Fellow
>
>
>