Editorial, June 2010

Dear Logic Programmers,

welcome back to a new issue of the ALP Newsletter. This is an unusually short issue (no fear, we have great things coming your way for the near future), developed to announce the new Newsletter format to the wide audience of ICLP 2010.

The newsletter is progressing in its evolution, which now includes some interesting features, such as

  • the ability of leaving comments on the articles, which will enable interesting discussions concerning the content of the postings;
  • regular updates to time-sensitive columns of the newsletter, such as call-for-papers, registration deadlines, or call for open positions

We are pleased to announce the new editorial board for the ALP Newsletter. We are fortunate that a number of very experienced and knowledgeable researchers have agreed to assist in the creation of the future issues of the newsletter – this will ensure a flow of high-quality and cutting-edge contributions to the newsletter. The new editorial board includes the following members:

  • Implementation of Logic Programming Systems:
    • Manuel Carro (Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain)
    • Ricardo Rocha (University of Porto, Portugal)
  • Constraint Logic Programming:
    • Roman Barták (Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic)
    • Tom Schrjivers (KULeuven, Belgium)
  • Applications of Logic Programming:
    • Marco Gavanelli (University of Ferrara, Italy)
    • Paolo Torroni (University of Bologna, Italy)
  • Inductive Logic Programming and Machine Learning:
    • Luc De Raedt (KULeuven, Belgium)
    • Vitor Santos Costa (University of Porto, Portugal)
  • Database Systems and Semantic Web:
    • Michael Kifer (SUNY Stony Brook, USA)
    • Axel Polleres (National University of Ireland, Ireland)
  • Knowledge Representation and Non-Monotonic Reasoning:
    • Marcello Balduccini (Kodak Research Laboratories, USA)
    • Son Tran (New Mexico State University, USA)
  • Program Analysis and Verification:
    • John Gallagher (University of Roskilde, Denmark)
    • Michael Leuschel (University of Düsseldorf, Germany)
  • Theoretical Foundations of Logic Programming:
    • Pedro Cabalar (Corunna University, Spain)
    • Stefan Woltran (Vienna University of Technology, Austria)
  • Games and Puzzles:
    • Paolo Baldan (University of Padova, Italy)

We would like to extend our welcome to the new editorial board. At the same time, we wish to express our sincere appreciation and heartfelt ‘Thank You’ to the editors that contributed to the past issues of the newsletter – Roberto Bagnara, Brigitte Pientka, Eric Monfroy, Frank Valencia, C.R. Ramakrishnan, Fariba Sadri, and Francesca Toni; without your contributions the newsletter would have not become the important reference point for the ALP community as it is now.

We are all getting ready to pack our bags and travel to Edinburgh, Scotland, for ICLP 2010. The program chairs, Manuel and Torsten, worked extra-hard to assemble a top-notch program, with contributions that are of the highest quality. And what better place than Edinburgh, with its deep history in the foundations of AI, to experience the upcoming edition of ICLP. This year, ICLP will feature some interesting new aspects – especially noteworthy is the new approach to the publications of proceedings. ICLP is leading the way (ahead of many other conferences) in publishing the best conference papers in the special issue of an international journal, in this case  Theory and Practice of Logic Programming, and in offering a separate special volume for the cutting-edge technical notes, to be published by the prestigious Leibniz International Proceedings in Informatics (LIPIcs) series (from Schloss Dagsthul). This new approach will offer an even broader dissemination of the outstanding research conducted in the LP community.

As we come to the closure of this editorial, we would like to invite all of you to send us your comments, suggestions, criticisms, etc. concerning the new format of the newsletter, and help us making this forum the best and most effective one for the LP community. And, of course, don’t forget to send us reports of meetings, workshops, panels, you are organizing in this summer.

’till the next one…

Agostino and Enrico