Vincentian professor receives academic awards

A Vincentian professor of Computer Science has recently been awarded for his pioneering work on model-based software engineering.{{more}}

Robert France, a professor in the Department of Computer Science at Colorado State University (CSU) in the United States, is one of two persons who have been named Professor Laureate for 2014 by the College of Natural Sciences of CSU.

The University’s website says France is renowned for his work on model-based software engineering and, in particular, the use of Unified Modeling Language. He is in high demand as an international speaker, and in 2007, he was invited to write a “state of the research” paper on model-driven software development for the International Conference on Software Engineering. This year he was named international chair of INRIA, a France based computer-science research organization, and awarded the prestigious Dahl-Nygaard Prize.

The Dahl-Nygaard Prize was awarded by the Association Internationale

pour les Technologies Objets (AITO) for his research on adding formal semantics to object-oriented modelling notations.

Professor France has served on programme committees of several major international conferences. He is the founding co-editor-in-chief of the journal Software and Systems Modelling (SoSym), and was the Software Area editor for IEEE Computer and associate editor for the Journal of Software Testing, Verification and Reliability.

According to the website of CSU, Professor Laureate is the highest academic title awarded by the College of Natural Sciences and is intended to honor faculty who have made outstanding contributions to its mission with work in the areas of research, teaching, mentoring and outreach. The title also recognizes the nominee’s career accomplishments and provides them an honorarium and two years of resources for student projects directed by them. During the academic year, each laureate must also deliver a college-wide address on an academic subject of his or her choice. The title of professor laureate remains for three years, is not renewable, and the award is relinquished upon passing to retirement or transitional retirement.

Professor France is the son of Robert and Jeanette France of Kingstown Park. He read for his undergraduate degree at the University of the West Indies, following which he obtained his Ph.D. at Massy University in New Zealand. He is married to the former Sheriffa Soleyn of Sion Hill. They have two children.