Robert Tarjan

Robert Endre Tarjan is an American computer scientist and mathematician who earned his PhD in computer science from Stanford University in 1972 under Robert W. Floyd, and who has served since 1985 as the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor of Computer Science at Princeton University. Tarjan developed a widely used algorithm for finding the strongly connected components of a directed graph, and with John Hopcroft he created the first linear-time algorithm for testing whether a graph is planar. He also co-invented splay trees and Fibonacci heaps, two influential data structures that improved the efficiency of a wide range of algorithms for searching, sorting and network optimization. Tarjan shared the ACM Turing Award with Hopcroft in 1986 for fundamental achievements in the design and analysis of algorithms and data structures, and he also received the Nevanlinna Prize in 1982 and the Paris Kanellakis Award in 1999.