Arie Nicolaas (Nico) Habermann Collection

Arie Nicolaas (Nico) Habermann Collection
Staff and Faculty Papers, Carnegie Mellon University Archives

Extent
24 boxes, 16 cu. ft.

Biographical Notes
Arie Nicolaas (Nico) Habermann (b. Groningen, Netherlands, June 26, 1932; d. Pittsburgh, PA, August 8, 1993) earned his B.S. in Mathematics and Physics and M.S. in Mathematics from the Free University of Amsterdam in 1953 and 1958, respectively. After a career as a secondary mathematics instructor, he achieved his doctorate in Applied Mathematics from the Technological University at Eindhoven (1967), where he was also engaged as a lecturer.

In 1968 Habermann was invited to the Department of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University as a Visiting Research Scientist; in the next year he was appointed an Associate Professor. Promoted to Full Professor in 1974, he became Acting Department Head in 1979, and served as official Department Head from 1980 to 1988. In the latter year he was named founding Dean of the new Carnegie Mellon School of Computer Science (SCS), established under the co-direction of Allen Newell and Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon.

With Howard Wactlar, Habermann co-founded Carnegie Mellon’s Software Engineering Institute (SEI) in 1985, having headed the faculty team which developed the winning proposal for that enterprise. With the support of university president Richard Cyert and faculty members such as Newell and Raj Reddy, Habermann was instrumental, and tireless, in attracting funding for SEI academic programs and graduate student research from foreign and American corporations (Siemens, ASCII, General Electric, et alia), and from U.S. government agencies (Department of Defense, Office of Naval Research). But despite his administrative achievements, Habermann retained a personal commitment to computer science education, as reflected in the ordering of his customary signature: A. N. Habermann, Professor and Dean. At Carnegie Mellon, he supervised more than twenty Ph.D. theses.

Habermann’s research interests lay in programming languages, operating systems, programming environments, and development of large software systems. He was particularly known for his work on avoidance of system deadlocks, process communication, process synchronization by path expression, program reusability and software verification. He was renowned for his work in the programs ALGOL 60, BLISS, Pascal, in the Department of Defense language Ada, and for his creation of the Gandalf program development system, which provided a user-friendly environment for system construction and maintenance. In addition, he contributed to practical and experimental operating systems such as Dutch professor E. W. Dijkstra’s THE System, the Family of Operating Systems (FAMOS) at Carnegie Mellon, the Dynamically Adaptable System (DAS) of Berlin, Germany, and UNIX. Habermann wrote many papers and delivered numerous presentations on his research. He also authored two textbooks: Introduction to Operating Systems Design (Science Research Associates, 1976); and, with Dewayne E. Perry, Ada for Experienced Programmers (Addison-Wesley, 1983).

Habermann enjoyed worldwide demand as a lecturer, conference program committee member, evaluator of university Computer Science programs, science institution board member or advisor, consultant to corporate research and design departments (including Siemens and IBM), and even as an expert witness in computer systems-related legal arbitration. His prominence in, and dedication to, the computer science field led him to highly-regarded editorial work for the journals of the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) and the IEEE (Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers), among other organizations. His paper reviews and oversight of reviews by valued colleagues established scientific standards of cogency and usefulness in the literature of the discipline.

Habermann served as visiting professor at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England (1973) and at the Technological University of Berlin, Germany (1976). Amid an increasingly hectic, globetrotting schedule he made time to act as Adjunct Professor of Computer Science at Jiao Tong University, Shanghai (1986-1993). From 1991 to 1993, Carnegie Mellon afforded him academic leave to accept the prestigious position of Assistant Director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering at the National Science Foundation (NSF), an organization he had previously served in several capacities. Habermann continued his administrative duties to the SCS and SEI, and during this demi-absence was honored by Carnegie Mellon as the Alan J. Perlis Professor of Computer Science. His devoted engagement in the furthering of the university and of computer science was cut short by his sudden death, by massive heart attack, at the age of 62. He is survived by his wife Marta (née Blom), son Frits, and daughters Eveline Killian and Irene and Marianne Habermann.

Scope and Content
This collection contains the academic, professional and personal papers of Arie Nicolaas (Nico) Habermann, Ph.D., stored in nine record center boxes. The collection includes publications, lecture materials, book translations, computer program designs, teaching materials, and letters, email printouts, contracts and administrative reports regarding Habermann’s myriad and interrelated academic, corporate and scientific involvements.

The collection is arranged into twelve series: Personal, Correspondence, Books, Papers, Editorial, Teaching, External Relations, Consulting, Talks, Trips, Colleagues, and Documentation

Arrangement of the collection has sought to retain as much of Habermann’s original ordering as possible, while eliminating obvious filing error and circumstantial lapses, such as occurred in the correspondence filing during the late years in which his career was divided between Carnegie Mellon University and the National Science Foundation. In the refoldering process, material on individual topics originally filed over time in several small folders have been combined for cohesion. Folder titles reproduce important secretarial notes on Habermann’s use of folder contents; in many cases the notes were the only resources for a records history.

Arrangement revisions of original order are recorded in the Records History or Scope and Content Notes for individual series. Secretary Phyllis Pomerantz and administrative assistant Sharon Burks (currently Carnegie Mellon employees) were consulted on the method of original ordering, and their comments inform the series documentation.

Due to the interrelation of Habermann’s associations, the thickly interspersed correspondence and the original ordering emphasis, the researcher is encouraged to examine all series to locate topic-specific materials. A further incentive is the existence of Habermann annotations and program design notes on unlikely documents and on the backs of documents, a circumstance reflecting his busy lifestyle and fecund mind.

Documentation of Habermann’s educational methods and materials may be found in the Teaching and Talks series. Record of Habermann’s corporate, academic, computer industry and computer science organization advisory career is contained in the Consulting, Talks, and Trips series. For advisory-related work in securing and implementing corporate and government funding of the Software Engineering Institute and other Carnegie Mellon Computer Science programs, see the External Relations, Consulting, Teaching, Talks, and Trips series.

Habermann’s writings and classroom or audience presentations on Ada and other programming language and on the Gandalf program development system are divided among the Books, Papers, Teaching, Talks, and Trips series. Further work in systems and software design may also be found in the Papers, Talks, and Trips series. For further details, consult the Records History and Scope and Content Notes for each series.

According to secretarial custom, dictated by Habermann himself, letters and email pertaining to specific interests, events or activities are located in the file folder pertaining to that topic, though much topic-specific correspondence was filed as miscellaneous correspondence, an arrangement reproduced in the Correspondence series. Within topic folders, correspondence has been rearranged into chronological order from the secretarial reverse-chronological order. Paper-wrapped “bundles” of correspondence represent multiple documents originally stapled together; due to processing time constraints, these bundled documents have been left in reverse-chronological order.

Series Descriptions (with links to Container Lists for each series)

I. Personal 1971-1991

Habermann instructed his secretaries to maintain a Personal section in his files for topics not strictly related to his academic or professional involvements. Materials arranged in the Personal series include Habermann’s portrait photograph, vitae and vita drafts, security clearance biography, Who’s Who listings, and documentation of Habermann’s university sabbatical and health concerns. Note the speculative paper on reform of the yearly calendar, a private fancy.

At under one-quarter of a box, this is the smallest series in the collection. A log of financial records for 1990, including travel expenses, was imported from Habermann’s Trips file section. Files of Thank-you and Regrets letters and of congratulations on Habermann’s appointments to various positions were exported to the Correspondence series. Folders are arranged alphabetically, then by date.

II. Correspondence 1967-1991

The Correspondence section of Habermann’s office files collected incoming and outgoing mail, 1973-1991. (Scattered correspondence dates back to 1967.) Collected also were email printouts for January-September 1991, a surplus of which were filed under the Correspondence catch-all (rather than in topic-specific files, as was Habermann’s preference) while Habermann was occupied at the National Science Foundation. Topics include Carnegie Mellon administrative matters, lecture and meeting trips, computer program design, academic funding issues, and recommendation letters for students and colleagues.

After the custom of Habermann’s office, a majority of folders throughout the collection contain topic-specific correspondence -- more correspondence, in total, than is arranged in this one and one-half box series, which is necessarily limited to reflect original ordering. Researchers are advised to examine folders in other series for correspondence related to the folder topic. Folders are arranged alphabetically, then by date.

III. Books 1969-1990

This series comprises Habermann’s office files related to the books Ada for Experienced Programmers, Introduction to Operating Systems Design, and Operating Systems Principles. The latter title was an out-of-print precursor to the Introduction; note also the folder for an early version (titled Principles of Operating Systems) co-authored with Per Brinch Hansen. Other topics include Habermann-annotated translations, collegial reviews of the books, notes and scientific articles for book revisions, correspondence with publishers Science Research Associates, and letters from erstwhile publishers. See the folder titled "Introduction to Operating Systems Design--Copyright Correspondence" for Habermann’s issue with a German computer scientist who sought to adapt the Introduction.

The arrangement of this half-box series is very similar to that of the office Books file section. Folders are arranged alphabetically, then by date. Habermann’s reviews of books published by Addison-Wesley were imported from the "Papers and Reports" section of the office files.

IV. Papers 1965-1982, 1985-1992

In Habermann’s office files these folders composed a section entitled "Papers and Reports," which was maintained in reverse chronological order, by year and paper date. Habermann’s intention was to keep available, by date of authorship, his scientific papers and administrative reports for professional involvements. Represented were published and unpublished papers often co-authored on operating systems design, computer languages such as Ada, ALGOL and Gandalf, and on software engineering issues such as system deadlocks. Habermann also collected reference papers by colleagues, including the set for an unknown project or entity called Simula 67, collected 1970-1978. Reports were addressed toward improvement of the Carnegie Mellon Computer Science Department, School of Computer Science, and Software Engineering Institute; and toward advisement on consulting or Carnegie Mellon external relations contractees such as the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Defense and the Office of Naval Research.

As received by the University Archives, the "Papers and Reports" files contained empty folders with these paper titles: Bracket Game (Research Memo), n.d.; Ervaringen met Bewegings meetkunde (Results of the New Math Teaching Method), 1961; Transformatie Meetkunde, 1962; Reports on the ALGOL Compiler, 1966; Computerwiskunde, 1969; “Integrated Design” SIGPLAN Notices, September 1973; On the Scheduling Aspects of Timing Concurrent Processes, 1973; Operations on Shared Data Controlled by Function Modules in Type Definitions, October 1973.

Twenty-four "Reports" folders were exported from the one and one-half-box Papers series; the eighteen whose contents were not already represented in the collection were arranged within the topic-appropriate series Books, Teaching, External Relations, Consulting or Talks. Habermann’s Papers folders are essentially intact, though rearranged chronologically, then by alphabet where applicable. Because the predominant method was to file all drafts of a paper into one or more folders with the same title, those papers composed over a long period and originally foldered under different years are now collected in that manner, under date of first draft. Bracketed [] dates indicate sequential drafts in a folder or folder set. The vitae in the Personal series offer the most complete listing of Habermann’s published papers. Photocopies of overhead transparencies are included in many folders.

V. Editorial 1974-1991

The office files contained folder sets representing Habermann’s oversight of collegial reviews (or refereeing) of papers for publication and, frequently, non-publication in computer science journals. The Editorial series arranges Habermann’s assigning, to topic-expert colleagues, of paper reviews for ACTA Informatica, TOPLAS (Transactions on Programming Languages and Systems, organ of ACM, the Association for Computing Machinery), Communications of the ACM, Information Processing Letters, the SIAM (Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics) Journal of Computing, and the three journals of the IEEE (Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers): Computer, Software, and Transactions in Software Engineering, in ascending order from popular to professional orientation. The series also includes scientific papers privately submitted for Habermann’s review, which was not always forthcoming.

The Editorial series (one and one-half box in length) is arranged in alphabetical order by publication or application; within publication sets, folders are arranged by the date of the letter assigning Habermann reviewing committee oversight for the paper. Habermann infrequently reviewed papers personally, and then only early in his editorial career. Folder titles of papers personally reviewed (typically those early in Habermann’s editorial career) contain the bracketed annotation [ANH]. See the Consulting series and Books series for additional computer science textual material reviewed by Habermann.

VI. Teaching 1970-1990

As constructed in the Habermann office files, the Teaching section contained course materials, including photocopies of overhead transparencies for classroom use; evaluations of course construction by sponsoring agencies, notably the U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for the Software Engineering course 413 and Ada language projects in artificial intelligence; articles and scientific papers collected by Habermann as reference material for teaching projects; textbooks used by Habermann; theses Habermann supervised; reports written by Habermann and other faculty on the scope and funding of Carnegie Mellon Computer Science research; and studies and memoranda on academic and faculty policies.

Reports on advancement strategies for the Computer Science Department, School of Computer Science and Software Engineering Institute were imported from Habermann’s "Papers and Reports" file section to the Teaching series, where they were incorporated with like material in existing folders or were given discrete folders within a like folder set. Presentations on the Ada language and other topics given in the SEI’s Immigration course were kept in the Talks series, as originally ordered. Computer printouts originally on spreadsheet paper have been reduced by photocopying to letter size. The two box-length Teaching series is arranged alphabetically.

VII. External Relations 1973-1992

Through his international consulting work (see the Consulting series) and computer industry and academic associations, Habermann developed a network of sources for funding Carnegie Mellon academic programs and graduate student research in computer science applied toward corporate or governmental contracting. This network was instrumental in the establishment and maintenance of Carnegie Mellon ’s Software Engineering Institute. Represented associations include contacts with ASCII and other Japanese corporations regarding the foundation of a Carnegie Mellon computer science institute in Japan (see especially the folders on Carnegie Mellon president Richard Cyert’s fact-finding mission to Japan); proposed founding of Carnegie Mellon institutes in robotics and computer science research by Westinghouse and the National Science Foundation, respectively; and Siemens’ interest in the Micon system, Gandalf software, and neural networks research. Other Carnegie Mellon external relations are represented: the university’s joining the Computing Research Board in an effort to give the computer science research community a stronger voice in national policy; a proposed association with the Intergrand company to develop and distribute Carnegie Mellon software; and the Open Software Foundation, a leaguing of seven leading computer companies toward a standard software environment, from which Carnegie Mellon sought exportability of the MACH system.

The External Relations series (two and one-quarter boxes in length) was assembled from folder sets titled "Funding and External Relations" in Habermann’s office files. The series is arranged in alphabetical order by title of corporation or government agency, then by date of association. Researchers examining Carnegie Mellon ’s external relations with sponsoring agencies should review the Teaching series for evaluatory materials regarding externally funded academic programs. See also the Talks series for presentations given at meetings of Carnegie Mellon’s Industrial Affiliates Program in 1986 and 1987.

VIII. Consulting 1977-1992

The office file set Habermann titled Consulting represented his advisory work for parties great and small, American and foreign, corporate, academic and governmental. Habermann furthered his, and Carnegie Mellon’s, associations and reputation by appearing on visiting committees, advisory boards and task forces to evaluate and advance research programs, software design, departmental faculty and division heads. Habermann was as comfortable as an expert witness in systems-related arbitration cases (see folder Kane Carpet v. McDonnell Douglas) as he was as member of IBM’s Science Advisory Committee (IBM-SAC), as software technologies advisor for Siemens, as advisor to the National Science Foundation’s Coordinated Experimental Research (CER) board, and member of the scope committee of the Computer Science and Technology Board (CSTB; later “Telecommunications Board”). Frequently, the associations Habermann made in his consulting work led to External Relations-category program funding for Carnegie Mellon, for which see the series of that title.

The one and one-half box length Consulting series has been rearranged into chronological order from Habermann’s preferred reverse-chronological filing. The series is arranged in alphabetical order by title of corporation, government agency, university or science institute, then by date of association.

IX. Talks 1982-1993

It was Habermann’s custom to have his computer science or Carnegie Mellon-related presentation materials filed by latest date in a Trips section, for secretarial retrieval at his prompt to deliver the topic presented on a particular occasion. Subjects include the futures of computer science and software engineering, achievements and goals of Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science (SCS) and Software Engineering Institute (SEI). Audiences addressed include Carnegie Mellon’s Industrial Affiliates Program; the Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); IBM’s Science Advisory Committee (IBM-SAC); the National Science Foundation (NSF); the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP); and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

The three-quarter-box length Talks series is arranged chronologically, inverting Habermann’s reverse-chronology filing. Habermann’s office filed incoming and outgoing correspondence regarding a talk appearance within the folder for that talk, though secretarial method may have placed some letters or email in what is now the Correspondence series. In reflection of original ordering, presentations on the Ada language and other topics given in the SEI’s Immigration Course are included among the largely extra-university presentations.

X. Trips 1977-1982, 1986-1992

Habermann traveled extensively to address Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute (SEI) funders such as the U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA); scientific organizations such as the National Science Foundation (NSF); administrative panels such IBM’s Science Advisory Committee (IBM-SAC); industrial-academic conferences on computing; and university audiences in Distinguished Lecture series or through visiting committees and advisory boards. While he often gave presentations identical or similar to those he ordered filed under Talks, his purpose in creating a Trips file category was to have readily available the names, addresses and phone numbers of contacts made during these engagements. The original file folders frequently contained the engagement contacts names for quick reference; normally these are recorded in the foldered documents. Secretarial notations of cancelled engagements and other circumstances are bracketed [] within folder titles.

The Trips series comprises two boxes of material. Incoming and outgoing correspondence regarding Habermann’s multifarious travels is largely arranged in the engagement-specific Trips series folders, but after secretarial method may also be found in the Correspondence series. Note that correspondence relating to a trip may extend for as long as years before and after the date of the engagement recorded on the file folder. The series is arranged chronologically, inverting Habermann’s reverse-chronological ordering.

XI. Colleagues 1967-1989

For reference to his own and to Carnegie Mellon ’s research interests, Habermann collected scientific papers by contemporaries in the computer science field. Some were written by his former graduate students, such as David Garlan, Dewayne Perry, and Gregory Andrews. Habermann’s Dutch mentor, Edsger Dijkstra, and sometime research collaborator Per Brinch Hansen are also represented.

The Colleagues series--named after the secretarial titling--comprises one box of material. Habermann also ordered catalogs and syllabi from other university Computer Science programs to be stored under this rubric. The series is arranged alphabetically by author or type of material.

XII. Documentation 1967-1986

As received by Carnegie Mellon University Archives, an untitled half-box of Habermann’s office files constituted a catch-all of manuals, studies and reports on software systems, hardware, and computer languages.

The half-box series is arranged alphabetically by title.

Provenance
This collection was transferred from the office of A. N. Habermann to the Carnegie Mellon University Archives in 1997.

Processor
This collection was processed by David A. Andrews in 1998. The Finding Aid was reformatted for online presentation by Jennie Benford in 2005.