computer science

Gregor Kiczales

Gregor Kiczales is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Gregor Kiczales rather than just read about it. In short: Gregor Kiczales is an American Canadian computer scientist. He is currently a professor of computer science at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Key takeaways

Gregor Kiczales belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Gregor Kiczales to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Gregor Kiczales from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Gregor Kiczales is an American Canadian computer scientist. He is currently a professor of computer science at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He is best known for developing the concept of aspect-oriented programming, and the AspectJ extension to the Java programming language, both of which he designed while working at Xerox PARC. He is also one of the co-authors of the specification for the Common Lisp Object System, and is the author of the book The Art of the Metaobject Protocol, along with Jim Des Rivières and Daniel G. Bobrow. Most of Kiczales' work throughout the years has been focused on allowing software engineers to create programs that look as much as possible like their design, to reduce complexity and make code maintenance easier, ultimately improving software quality.

Early life Kiczales was raised in Winchester, Virginia. He attended Middlesex School, graduating in the class of 1978.

Career After pursuing undergraduate studies at MIT, Kiczales started his research career in 1980 at the MIT Lab for Computer Science, where he stayed until 1983. In 1984, he joined the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center software research lab as member of research staff, becoming principal scientist in 1996. Throughout his time at PARC, Kiczales developed some of his most important research works, including aspect-oriented programming and AspectJ. He left PARC in 1999 to focus on computer science education. In 2000, he moved to Canada and joined the Department of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia as a tenured professor. At UBC, Kiczales started the Software Practices Lab and designed a number of courses related to software engineering and programming languages. Most importantly, he designed CPSC 110, the introductory programming course in the UBC curriculum, which students take in their first year of undergraduate studies. The course focuses on systematic program design by means of design recipes. In 2002, he co-founded Intentional Software with Charles Simonyi, but then left the company in 2003 in order to return to UBC. In 2012, he won the Senior AITO Dahl-Nygaard Prize for his work on the Common Lisp Object System, and was named an ACM Fellow for his contributions to aspect-oriented programming. In July 2017, he was appointed executive director of UBC Extended Learning. In April 2025, he departed from his role as an instructor for the introductory first year undergraduate Computer Science course at UBC which he designed, CPSC 110.

See also Aspect-oriented programming AspectJ How to Design Programs MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory PARC (company) UBC Department of Computer Science

References

External links Gregor Kiczales' homepage edX courses by Gregor Kiczales

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Gregor Kiczales

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Gregor Kiczales claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Gregor Kiczales before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Gregor Kiczales ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Gregor Kiczales

In research: Gregor Kiczales appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Gregor Kiczales in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Gregor Kiczales is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1961 births, Academic staff of the University of British Columbia Faculty of Science, American computer scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Gregor Kiczales outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Gregor Kiczales in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Gregor Kiczales means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Gregor Kiczales out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Gregor Kiczales in simple terms?

Gregor Kiczales is an American Canadian computer scientist. He is currently a professor of computer science at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Why does Gregor Kiczales matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Gregor Kiczales?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Gregor Kiczales.