Dr. E. Allen Emerson Endowed Presidential Scholarship

E. Allen Emerson II

June 2, 1954–Oct. 15, 2024

Ernest “Allen” Emerson II was born in Dallas, Texas, on June 2, 1954. He attended Dallas public schools and graduated first in his 1972 class at David W. Carter High School. He furthered his education at The University of Texas at Austin, where in 1976 he received a B.S. in mathematics. In 1981, he received a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University.

During his Ph.D. research at Harvard, Allen co-invented model checking, an automated method for a computer to verify whether a (given) program meets its correctness and security requirements. The invention of model checking was a revolutionary advance. Correctness proofs that would have taken days or weeks to construct by hand could now be done automatically in a few seconds. Allen was named a joint winner of the Turing Award, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in computer science, in 2007 for his role in the creation of model checking.

Model checking is routinely applied today to find errors in computer chips, network protocols and critical software modules. Allen was deeply involved in the development and growth of model checking, introducing new temporal logics that made it easier to describe program properties and new algorithms that made it possible to check complex programs. Allen also made several other foundational contributions to computer science and artificial intelligence and is widely regarded as an intellectual giant in the formal methods and verification community.

Allen was an inspirational teacher who challenged students to be deliberate and rigorous thinkers. He used a deductive style of teaching in graduate classes called the Moore method, where students would solve problems on their own without the aid of a textbook.

Allen advised 15 Ph.D. students at UT Austin who have gone on to careers in academia, research and industry, and whose lives and careers have been deeply influenced by what they learned from him. His mentoring footprint extends to nearly 60 academic “grandchildren” (Ph.D. graduates advised by his students) and seven academic great-grandchildren.

Allen shared a warm camaraderie with his students, interacting with them as he would with his peers and friends. Outside of spirited technical discussions and life lessons (such as “You have to bang your head on it (a problem) till it breaks” and “Be bold!”), his students recollect his dry humor and wonderful memories of conversations on all kinds of topics.

Allen was grateful for the extensive financial help that he received through scholarships in both his undergraduate and graduate studies. He believed strongly in helping future generations achieve their academic goals, as he had, from the generosity of others.

Allen’s academic niece, Dr. Yi Mao, has renamed the atsec Turing Scholarship to the Dr. E. Allen Emerson Endowed Presidential Scholarship in honor of Allen’s legacy. The scholarship supports computer science Turing Scholars and is intended to inspire them to pursue impactful and meaningful work, reflecting the standard of excellence that Allen exemplified throughout his career.