kozen

Kozen is a surname of Japanese origin. In academic and professional contexts, the name is most commonly encountered as the surname of notable individuals, particularly in the field of computer science.

Dexter Kozen (born 1951) is an American computer scientist and professor of computer science at Cornell University. His research covers theoretical aspects of computation, including automata theory, formal languages, and the semantics of programming languages. He has contributed to algebraic approaches to program verification, notably Kleene algebra with tests, which provides an algebraic framework for reasoning about programs. Kozen's work also involves dynamic logic and related formalisms used to reason about computational processes. He is the author of several influential textbooks and numerous research articles that have shaped the field of theoretical computer science.

Beyond his research, Kozen has served on editorial boards and taught courses on algorithms, automata theory, and formal methods, influencing generations of students and researchers. While the surname Kozen occurs in other contexts, it is most commonly associated in scholarly literature with Dexter Kozen.