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Andrei A. Baehrs


How, when, and why have you joined the Programming Department?: 

Upon graduating from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, I was assigned to work at the Institute of Mathematics of SB AS. I arrived on April1, 1961, and on Monday, April 3, I attended A.A. Zykov’s seminar on graph theory, where Ershov spoke about memory allocation by graph coloring. During the break, we walked up and down the long third floor corridor of the school building, where the University was situated at that time. By the time we returned to the seminar room, I had already had Ershov’s invitation to work at the PD. To the disappointment of E.V. Evreinov, I started my work at the PD on April 5.
I had known A.P. back in Moscow, I was familiar with his works on operator algorithms and languages, and I used it as the grounds in my request to Sergei L. Sobolev for work at the IM.

What was your first impression of Andrei Ershov and other colleagues?: 

My first impressions:
Ershov – ruddy-faced, lively, and affable;
Igor Pottosin – very positive;
Inna Vitkina – kind and caring.

What can you tell about your work at the PD? In what projects you participated? What research fields did you work on? Who was your first direct supervisor?: 

For some time I tried to help A.P. in building a marking for operator algorithms, but did not succeed – Ershov had beaten me to it.
My direct supervisor has always been A.P.
I have been coordinator of the BETA project, and together with A.F. Rar I have been responsible for Algol 68.
I devised Dataflow Schemata, Electronic preparation of publications, Computer presentation and transformation for fonts, self-contained open high-level operation environments, the principle of equivalence of a program fragment single execution and a specific activity, the principle of information completeness.
I translated Algol 68 description twice (first time – at the command, and then on my own accord).
Projects: BETA TAU, SAPPHIRE, RUBIN, MRAMOR.

Who of your colleagues most influenced your professional growth?: 

Of course it’s A.P.; Narinyani/Kotov tandem; A.F. Rar; my first SB AS disciple Valery Grushetsky.
Among outside influences I’d name S.S. Lavrov, A. Letichevsky / Yu. Kapitonova and Mark Nemenman, John McCarthy.

Can you name the PD visitors who you remember the most?: 

S.S. Lavrov, A. Letichevsky – Yu. Kapitonova, Mark Nemenman, Enn Tyugu, Stanley Gill, John McCarthy, Aad van Wijingaarden, Jack Schwartz.

What, in your opinion, are the most significant scientific and practical results obtained at the Programming Department?: 

Optimizing translation, mixed computation, Electronic preparation of publications;
MARS, KRONOS, and MRAMOR projects;
Fuzzy-approach in AI;
The Encyclopedia of Graph Algorithms.

Can you remember the most joyous day at the Department?: 

It’s too long to list… we used to have lots of fun.

…And the saddest one?: 

There were two: the decease of Gena Kozhukhin and the decease of A.P.

What is your current occupation?: 

Foundations of informatics;
Reading lectures at the University.

With whom of your colleagues at PD are you still connected professionally, or simply on friendly terms?: 

With everybody who is here.

What did you dream of? Did any of the dreams come true?: 

I wished to understand why we program like this. I understood.

Have you changed your view on programming since or during your days at the PD?: 

It expanded; actually, programming appeared to be just a part of informatics.
                       
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