Ashok K. Chandra

{{Infobox scientist

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|name = Ashok K. Chandra

|birth_date = {{Birth date|1948|7|30|df=yes}}

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|death_date = {{Death date and age|2014|11|15|1948|7|30|df=yes}}

|death_place = California, United States

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|field = Computer science

|work_institutions = IBM Research
Microsoft Research

|alma_mater = Berkeley

|doctoral_advisor = Zohar Manna{{MathGenealogy|id=111506}}

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|known_for = Conjunctive queries, alternating Turing machines

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Ashok K. Chandra (30 July 1948 – 15 November 2014){{cite web

| url=https://www.skylawnmemorialpark.com/obituaries/Ashok-Chandra-32954/

| title=Dr. Ashok Kumar Chandra Obituary

| accessdate=29 May 2015}} was a computer scientist at Microsoft Research in Mountain View, California, United States, where he was a general manager at the Internet Services Research Center.{{cite web|title=Ashok K. Chandra profile at Microsoft |url=http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/people/achandra/default.aspx |accessdate=31 October 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102164111/http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/people/achandra/default.aspx |archivedate=November 2, 2013 }} Chandra received his PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University, an MS from University of California, Berkeley, and a BTech from IIT Kanpur.

He was previously Director of Database and Distributed Systems at IBM Almaden Research Center.

Chandra co-authored several key papers in theoretical computer science. Among other contributions, he introduced alternating Turing machines in computational complexity (with Dexter Kozen and Larry Stockmeyer),{{Cite conference | last1=Chandra | first1=A. K. | last2=Stockmeyer | first2=L. J. | title=Alternation | conference=FOCS '76: Proceedings of the 17th IEEE Symposium on Foundations of Computer Science | location=Houston, Texas | year=1976 | pages=98–108 | doi=10.1109/SFCS.1976.4 }}{{Cite journal | last1=Chandra | first1=A. K. | last2=Kozen | first2=D. C. | last3=Stockmeyer | first3=L. J. | title=Alternation | journal=Journal of the ACM | volume=28 | issue=1 | pages=114–133 | year=1981 | doi=10.1145/322234.322243 | s2cid=238863413 | doi-access=free }} conjunctive queries in databases (with Philip M. Merlin),{{Cite conference | last1=Chandra | first1=Ashok K. | last2=Merlin | first2=Philip M. | year=1977 | title=Optimal Implementation of Conjunctive Queries in Relational Data Bases | conference=STOC '77: Proceedings of the ninth annual ACM symposium on Theory of computing | pages=77–90 | doi=10.1145/800105.803397 }} computable queries (with David Harel),{{Cite journal | last1=Chandra | first1=Ashok K. | last2=Harel | first2=David | title=Computable Queries for Relational Data Bases | journal=Journal of Computer and System Sciences | volume=21 | issue=2 | year=1980 | pages=156–178 | doi=10.1016/0022-0000(80)90032-X | doi-access=free }} and multiparty communication complexity (with Merrick L. Furst and Richard J. Lipton).{{Cite conference | last1=Chadra | first1=Ashok K. | last2=Furst | first2=Merrick L. | last3=Lipton | first3=Richard J. | title=Multi-party protocols | conference=STOC '83: Proceedings of the fifteenth annual ACM symposium on Theory of computing | year=1983 | pages=94–99 | doi=10.1145/800061.808737}}

He was a founder of the annual IEEE Symposium on Logic in Computer Science and served as conference chair of the first three conferences, in 1986–8.{{cite web|title=LICS – Archive |url=http://www2.informatik.hu-berlin.de/lics/archive/pc.html |accessdate=31 October 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120311040242/http://www2.informatik.hu-berlin.de/lics/archive/pc.html |archivedate=March 11, 2012 }}

He was an IEEE Fellow.{{cite web|title=IEEE Fellows – C |website=Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) |url=http://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/fellows/alphabetical/cfellows.html#Cha |accessdate=31 October 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102165509/http://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/fellows/alphabetical/cfellows.html |archivedate=November 2, 2013 }}