Editing Hal Abelson (section)

{{short description|American mathematician}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}{{Infobox scientist
| honorific_prefix  = 
| name              = Hal Abelson
| honorific_suffix  = 
| image             = HalAbelsonJI1.jpg
| caption           = Abelson in 2007
| birth_date        = {{birth date and age|1947|4|26}}<ref name=loc>{{cite linked authority file|id=n 80132755}}</ref>
| birth_place       = 
| birth_name        = Harold Abelson
| death_date        = 
| death_place       = 
| residence         = 
| field             = [[Computer science education]]<br>[[Amorphous computing]]
| work_institutions = [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]
| alma_mater        = {{Plainlist |
* [[Princeton University]] ([[B. A.|BA]])
* [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] ([[PhD]])}}
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Dennis Sullivan]]<ref name=mathgene/>
| doctoral_students = {{plainlist|
*[[Elizabeth Bradley (mathematician and rower)|Elizabeth Bradley]]<ref name=mathgene/>
*[[Mitchel Resnick]]<ref name=mathgene/>
*[[Latanya Sweeney]]<ref name=mathgene/>}}
| thesis_title      = Topologically Distinct Conjugate-Varieties with Finite Fundamental-Group
| thesis_year       = 1973
| thesis_url        = https://mit.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01MIT_INST/ejdckj/alma990006784080106761
| known_for         = {{Plainlist|
* [[Creative Commons]]
* [[Public Knowledge]]
* [[Free Software Foundation]]
* [[OpenCourseWare]]<ref name=ocw/>
* ''[[Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs]]'' (SICP)<ref name=sicp/>}}
| awards            = {{Plainlist|
<!--only include awards notable enough to have dedicated Wikipedia pages-->
* [[SIGCSE Award for Outstanding Contribution to Computer Science Education]] (2012)}}
| website           = {{Official URL}}
| footnotes         = 
}}

'''Harold Abelson''' (born April 26, 1947)<ref name=loc/> is an American mathematician and computer scientist. He is a professor of computer science and engineering in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT), a founding director of both [[Creative Commons]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://creativecommons.org/about/history |title=Creative Commons: History |access-date=2011-10-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111007165253/http://creativecommons.org/about/history |archive-date=2011-10-07 |url-status=dead }}</ref> and the [[Free Software Foundation]],<ref name=off/> creator of the [[MIT App Inventor]] platform, and co-author of the widely-used textbook ''[[Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs]]'' (SICP), sometimes also referred to as "the wizard book" because of its cover illustration.

He directed the first implementation of the language [[Logo (programming language)|Logo]] for the [[Apple II]], which made the language widely available on [[personal computer]]s starting in 1981; and published a widely selling book on Logo in 1982. Together with [[Gerald Jay Sussman]], Abelson developed MIT's introductory computer science subject, "The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" (often referred to by the MIT course number, 6.001), a subject organized around the idea that a computer language is primarily a formal medium for expressing ideas about methodology, rather than just a way to get a computer to perform operations. 

Abelson and Sussman also cooperate in codirecting the MIT Project on Mathematics and Computation. The [[MIT OpenCourseWare]] (OCW) project was spearheaded by Abelson and other MIT faculty.<ref name=ocw>{{cite journal|journal=Journal of Science Education and Technology|title=The Creation of OpenCourseWare at MIT|first=Hal |last=Abelson |volume=17|pages=164–174|year=2008|issue=2 |doi=10.1007/s10956-007-9060-8 |bibcode=2008JSEdT..17..164A |hdl=1721.1/37585|s2cid=110449905|hdl-access=free}}</ref>

Abelson led an internal investigation of MIT's choices and role in the prosecution of [[Aaron Swartz]] by the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI), which concluded that MIT did nothing wrong legally, but recommended that MIT consider changing some of its internal policies.