Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2006 15:50:52 -0500 (EST) From: Peter Clote To: ruy@cin.ufpe.br Subject: letter Parts/Attachments: 1 Shown 24 lines Text 2 OK ~4.8 KB Text, "" ---------------------------------------- Dear Ruy, As requested (per email I received from one of the research grant panel members), here is a copy of the letter I had sent on your behalf. I changed the address from each individual on the panel to a generic "to whom it may concern". Good luck, Peter ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Clote, Ph.D. Professor, Biology Department Courtesy appt. Computer Science Department Boston College Higgins Hall 577 140 Commonwealth Avenue 617 552 1332 (office) Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 617 552 2011 (fax) http://clavius.bc.edu/~clote/ clote@bc.edu Co-organizer of MIT Bioinformatics Seminar http://www-math.mit.edu/compbiosem/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [ Part 2, "" Text/PLAIN (Name: "@") 104 lines. ] [ Not Shown. Use the "V" command to view or save this part. ] To whom it may concern: This is a letter of support for the research grant renewal of Professor Ruy J. G. B. de Queiroz, in the Centro de Informatica of the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco (UFPE). I know Prof. Ruy de Queiroz for over 10 years now, having first met him when invited to give a series of lectures on mathematical logic at the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco in fall of 1996. At that time, I was the Gentzen Chair (C4) of Theoretical Computer Science at the Ludwig-Maximilians Universitaet Muenchen (Univ of Munich, Germany). Although my PhD from 1979 is in mathematical logic, and I have held permanent positions in computer science (at Boston College and as chair at the Univ of Munich), I have since moved from into the biology department, in order to better pursue computational molecular biology. This short explanation of my background is necessary to understand the reasons for my support of Prof. de Queiroz. Prof de Queiroz has done a remarkable job of promoting mathematical logic, both within Brazil and more importantly internationally, at a time when mathematics and theoretical computer science are under various pressures. Before globalization and outsourcing, the once lucrative area of computer science drew many undergraduate and graduate students, and mathematics and theoretical computer science profited from the plethora of good students with bright job prospects. Now, more than ever, it is important to continue to promote mathematics and theoretical computer science, since the future of diverse areas of science including computational molecular biology, bioinformatics, neurobiology physics, etc. depends on theoretical developments only made possible by students and researchers with a rigorous training in mathematics and theoretical computer science. Prof de Queiroz is one of the very few persons, who has consistently shown enormous administrative energy in promoting mathematics and theoretical computer science, specifically mathematical logic, as evidenced by the continuing WoLLIC annual conferences, drawing eminent keynote speakers of world-class reputation, and as witnessed by his various editorial duties. In addition to his enormous international service (editorial duties, conference organization), Prof. de Queiroz continues to do first-class research, as witnessed by his journal articles and book chapters. If he were not so involved in the organization of WoLLIC and various editorial duties, it is clear that he would have more journal articles. However, I believe that Prof de Queiroz's international impact would be diminuished if he were to do that. The renewal of his research grant would help to better support future students and researchers in mathematics and theoretical computer science, which as I stated above, is important. Why? Why not let theoretical computer science slowly die? To take examples from computational biology, there are a number of key ideas which would not be possible without theoretical computer science. For example, stochastic context free grammars are now used to model RNA classes, and have been used in noncoding RNA gene finders, in the same manner in which hidden Markov models (stochastic regular grammars) are the key tool for protein (ie coding RNA) gene finders. Two of my current postdocs in the biology department have PhDs respectively in mathematics and theoretical computer science. My current NSF-funded research on RNA secondary structure determination could not be carried out by biologists or computer scientists in more practical areas such as databases, graphics, computer vision, robotics, etc. I believe that new ideas and new directions in bioinformatics will continue to come from the cross-fertilization of different mathematical fields, and most definitely depend on young researchers having a theoretical formation. To this extent, I feel that Prof de Queiroz's continual work has very high impact. If you have any additional questions, please don't hesitate to write or call me. Sincerely, Peter Clote ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Peter Clote, Ph.D. Professor, Biology Department Courtesy appt. Computer Science Department Boston College Higgins Hall 577 140 Commonwealth Avenue 617 552 1332 (office) Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 617 552 2011 (fax) http://clavius.bc.edu/~clote/ clote@bc.edu Co-organizer of MIT Bioinformatics Seminar http://www-math.mit.edu/compbiosem/ -----------------------------------------------------------------------