Manny Lehman (computer scientist)

{{short description|Known for Lehman's laws of software evolution}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Manny Lehman

| image = Meir Manny Lehman.jpg

| birth_date = {{birth date|df=y|1925|1|24}}

| birth_place = Germany

| death_date = 29 December 2010 (aged 85)

| death_place = Jerusalem, Israel

| residence =

| nationality =

| workplaces = Ferranti
Ministry of Defense (Israel)
IBM
Imperial College London
Middlesex University

| alma_mater = Imperial College London

| doctoral_advisor = K. D. Tocher{{cite web | url = http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Oral-History:Meir_Lehman | title = Meir M. Lehman: An Interview Conducted by William Aspray | publisher = IEEE History Center | date= 23 September 1993 | accessdate = 6 October 2012}}

| doctoral_students = Peter G. Harrison

| thesis_title = Parallel Arithmetic Units and Their Control

| thesis_year = 1957

| known_for = Lehman's laws of software evolution

| awards = Harlan D. Mills Award (2001)
FREng{{cite web|title=List of Fellows|url=http://www.raeng.org.uk/about-us/people-council-committees/the-fellowship/list-of-fellows}} (2012)

| spouse = Chava Robinson (m. 1953)

}}

Meir "Manny" Lehman, FREng{{cite web|title=List of Fellows|url=http://www.raeng.org.uk/about-us/people-council-committees/the-fellowship/list-of-fellows}} (24 January 1925 – 29 December 2010) was a professor in the School of Computing Science at Middlesex University. From 1972 to 2002 he was a Professor and Head of the Computing Department at Imperial College London. His research contributions include the early realisation of the software evolution phenomenon and the eponymous Lehman's laws of software evolution.{{cite journal|title=Evolution in software systems: foundations of the SPE classification scheme|first=Stephen|last=Cook|first2=Rachel|last2=Harrison|author2-link=Rachel Harrison (computer scientist)|first3=Meir M.|last3=Lehman|authorlink3=Meir M. Lehman|first4=Paul|last4=Wernick|journal=Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution: Research and Practice|volume=18|pages=1–35|date=November 2005|publisher=John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.|url=http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/112136395/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130105080212/http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/112136395/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0|url-status=dead|archive-date=2013-01-05|doi=10.1002/smr.314|issue=1}}{{Cite journal | last1 = Canfora | first1 = G. | last2 = Dalcher | first2 = D. | last3 = Raffo | first3 = D. | last4 = Basili | first4 = V. R. | last5 = Fernández-Ramil | first5 = J. | last6 = Rajlich | first6 = V. C. | last7 = Bennett | first7 = K. | last8 = Burd | first8 = L. | last9 = Munro | first9 = M. | last10 = Drossopoulou | doi = 10.1002/smr.537 | first10 = S. | last11 = Boehm | first11 = B. | last12 = Eisenbach | first12 = S. | last13 = Michaelson | first13 = G. | last14 = Dalcher | first14 = D. | last15 = Ross | first15 = P. | last16 = Wernick | first16 = P. D. | last17 = Perry | first17 = D. E. | title = In memory of Manny Lehman, 'Father of Software Evolution' | journal = Journal of Software Maintenance and Evolution: Research and Practice | volume = 23 | issue = 3 | pages = 137 | year = 2011 | doi-access = free }}

Career

Lehman was born in Germany on 24 January 1925 and emigrated to England in 1931.{{cite book|title=The history of Imperial College London, 1907–2007|first=Hannah|last=Gay|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=x4u4ikoj1M8C&pg=PA562 |year=2007|page=562|publisher=Imperial College Press |isbn=978-1-86094-708-7|accessdate=12 October 2011}}{{cite web|url=http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/l/10422/Meir%20M%20%28Manny%29+LEHMAN.aspx|title=Prof Manny Lehman, FREng|publisher=Debrett's|accessdate=9 October 2011|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130725025059/http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/l/10422/Meir%20M%20%28Manny%29+LEHMAN.aspx|archivedate=25 July 2013|df=dmy-all}} He studied mathematics as an undergraduate at Imperial College London where he was involved in the design of the Imperial College Computing Engine's Digital Computer Arithmetic Unit.{{Cite book | title = The history of Imperial College London, 1907–2007 | last = Gay | first = Hannah | publisher = World Scientific | year = 2007 | isbn = 978-1-86094-709-4 | page = 291}} He spent a year at Ferranti in London before working at Israel's Ministry of Defense from 1957 to 1964. From 1964 to 1972 he worked at IBM's research division in Yorktown Heights, NY where he studied program evolution with Les Belady. The study of IBM's programming process gave the foundations for Lehman's laws of software evolution.{{cite web | url = http://www.sigsoft.org/SEN/lehman.html | title = ACM Fellow Profile for Meir M. (Manny) Lehman | publisher = ACM | date = 31 May 2007 | accessdate = 9 June 2009 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110928015833/http://www.sigsoft.org/SEN/lehman.html | archive-date = 28 September 2011 | url-status = dead }} In 1972 he returned to Imperial College where he was Head of Section and later Head of Department (1979–1984). Lehman remained at Imperial for some thirty years until 2002 when he moved to the School of Computing Science at Middlesex University.

After retiring from Middlesex he moved to Jerusalem, Israel, where he died on 29 December 2010.{{cite news |title=Obituary: Professor Manny Lehman |author=Susan Eisenbach |url=http://www2.imperial.ac.uk/blog/reporter/2011/02/04/obituary-professor-manny-lehman/ |newspaper=Reporter |publisher=Imperial College London |date=4 February 2011 |accessdate=4 May 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110606114839/http://www2.imperial.ac.uk/blog/reporter/2011/02/04/obituary-professor-manny-lehman/ |archive-date=6 June 2011 |url-status=dead }}

Awards and honours

Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering{{cite web|title=List of Fellows|url=http://www.raeng.org.uk/about-us/people-council-committees/the-fellowship/list-of-fellows}} (1989)
Fellow of the ACM (1994){{cite web|url=http://fellows.acm.org/homepage.cfm?srt=all|title=ACM Fellows|publisher=ACM|accessdate=17 June 2011|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110530024148/http://fellows.acm.org/homepage.cfm?srt=all|archivedate=30 May 2011}}
Harlan D. Mills Award (2001){{cite web |url=http://www.computer.org/portal/web/awards/harlan#_118_tabs_WAR_pluginsui_INSTANCE_Wr5I_tab1 |title=Past recipients for Harlan D. Mills Award |publisher=IEEE Computer Society |accessdate=13 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141129221657/http://www.computer.org/portal/web/awards/harlan#_118_tabs_WAR_pluginsui_INSTANCE_Wr5I_tab1 |archive-date=29 November 2014 |url-status=dead }}

References

M.M. Lehman. "Programs, life cycles, and laws of software evolution", Proceedings of the IEEE, pages 1060–1076, September 1980
Laszlo Belady, M. M. Lehman: A Model of Large Program Development. IBM Systems Journal 15(3): 225–252 (1976)

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20080214101749/http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~mml/feast2/papers.html FEAST Publications]
[https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/search/freesrchabstract.jsp?arnumber=1456074&isnumber=31293&punumber=5&k2dockey=1456074@ieeejrns&query=%28programs++life+cycles+and+laws+of+software+evolution%29%3Cin%3Emetadata&pos=1 IEEExplore]{{dead link|date=January 2025|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070812115139/http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/04/08/lehman/index.html A unified theory of software evolution], Salon.com, 2002.
{{cite web|url=http://www.ieeeghn.org/wiki/index.php/Oral-History:Meir_Lehman|title=Meir M. Lehman, an oral history|author=William Aspray|work=IEEE Global History Network|publisher=IEEE|year=1993|accessdate=9 October 2011}}
[https://web.archive.org/web/20081209085511/http://www.cs.mdx.ac.uk/staffpages/mml/ Manny Lehman's Home Page]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20100515171329/http://mannymlehman.com/ Lehman's official academic archive]

Category:1925 births

Category:2010 deaths

Category:Academics of Middlesex University

Category:Academics of the Department of Computing, Imperial College London

Category:British computer scientists

Category:British software engineers

Category:Software engineering researchers

Category:1994 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery