[Alonzo Church](http://wikipedia.org/en/Alonzo_Church) was an American mathematician and logician, born on June 14, 1903, in Washington, D.C. He is best known for his significant contributions to the field of mathematical logic and the development of [[lambda calculus]]. Church completed his undergraduate studies at Princeton University in 1924 and went on to pursue his Ph.D. in mathematics at Princeton as well. He earned his doctorate in 1927 with a thesis on mathematical logic supervised by [[Oswald Veblen]]. One of Church's most influential works is the development of lambda calculus, a formal system for expressing computation based on function abstraction and application. Lambda calculus played a fundamental role in the development of computer science and programming languages. It provided a theoretical framework for understanding computation and inspired subsequent developments such as the creation of Lisp programming language. Church also made significant contributions to other areas of mathematics and logic. In collaboration with [[Alan Turing]], he worked on the Entscheidungsproblem (decision problem) and proved that there is no algorithmic method to determine whether an arbitrary mathematical statement is provable or not. This result is known as Church-Turing thesis or Church's Thesis. During his career, Alonzo Church held various academic positions, including being a professor at Princeton University from 1929 until his retirement in 1967. His teaching and research greatly influenced several generations of mathematicians, logicians, and computer scientists. Alonzo Church received numerous honors for his work, including being elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1950. He was also awarded the National Medal of Science by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Church passed away on August 11, 1995, leaving behind a lasting legacy in the field of mathematical logic and computer science through his groundbreaking contributions to lambda calculus and his fundamental insights into computational theory. # References ```dataview Table title as Title, authors as Authors where contains(authors, "Alonzo Church") or contains(title, "Alonzo Church") ```