Counting Steps in Cory Hall

Abstract

In 1968 Corrado Böhm was appointed full professor and left Rome. After a short period spent in Modena (where he taught numerical analysis) he moved to the University of Turin. It was time for me to prepare to find a visiting position in some institution abroad. During his trip in the US Corrado had established several interesting contacts and he presented to me various options. In particular he spoke to me with enthusiasm about a young researcher who had just moved to the University of California at Berkeley and who was working in the field of computational complexity, Manuel Blum. The scientific interests of Corrado were not limited to λ-calculus and I loved his ability to catch new important ideas in all areas of theoretical computer science. So I was rapidly convinced that his intuition about Blum’s research work was correct. I wrote to Manuel who warmly replied to me offering hospitality at the Department of Electrical Engineering in Cory Hall. Then I applied for a CNR foreign scholarship.