Hopcroft

Hopcroft is a surname of English origin. It may refer to people with that surname, most notably John E. Hopcroft (born 1939), an American computer scientist and professor at Cornell University. Hopcroft is a foundational figure in theoretical computer science, with influential work in automata theory, formal languages, and algorithm design. He shared the ACM A.M. Turing Award in 1986 with Jeffrey Ullman for fundamental contributions to the theory of algorithms and automata and their use in programming languages.

Hopcroft is associated with several key algorithms and results. Hopcroft's minimization algorithm for deterministic finite automata provides an efficient method to minimize states via partition refinement. The Hopcroft–Karp algorithm, co-developed with Richard M. Karp, gives an efficient O(E sqrt(V)) approach for finding maximum matchings in bipartite graphs and is widely used in practice. In education and theory, Hopcroft, Motwani, and Ullman authored Introduction to Automata Theory, Languages, and Computation, a standard textbook that has guided generations of students and researchers.

In addition to his research, Hopcroft has been active in teaching and service within the computer science community, and his work has influenced compiler design, language theory, and graph algorithms. The Hopcroft name remains a common reference point in automata theory and algorithm design.