Tércio Pacitti

Tércio Pacitti (born September 9, 1928 in Piracicaba) is an electronic engineer and computer scientist in Brazil.

Biography
Pacitti was born in Piracicaba-SP, where he did his basic studies at the Colégio Piracicabano. He graduated as aeronautical engineer from ITA, first in the class of 1952, having completed a Masters (1961) and Ph.D. (1971) at University of California, Berkeley. He was a student of David A. Huffman among others at Berkeley.

Pacitti wrote several books in computer science, especially the Fortran Monitor, which from 1967 to 1987 has sold 250,000 copies in the country, and Do Fortran à Internet (From Fortran to the Internet), retrospect of his life and information technology in the world, already in its third edition. He launched in 2006 Paradigmas do software aberto (Paradigms of open source software), his most recent work.

He led the introduction of information technology at the ITA, at the Air Force, at COPPE-UFRJ and at UNIRIO. He was rector of the ITA between 1982 to 1984, and established the course of Computer Engineering.

His last post in the Air Force Command, as Major-Brigadier Engineer, was the Head of the Directorate of Engineering in 1986 and 1987 season in which he also chaired the ADESG. He was president of the Council of Informatics of the State of Rio de Janeiro from 1987 to 1990. It currently belongs to the National Academy of Engineering and is scientific adviser to the presidency of Consist.

Awards

 * Excellence in Software Award granted by the International Centre for Software Technology (CTIS), 1996

Decorations
Tercio Pacitti was container, among others, the following medals:


 * Ordem do Mérito Militar (Order of Military Merit) (grade of Commander)
 * Ordem do Mérito Naval (Order of Naval Merit) (grade of Commander)
 * Ordem do Mérito da Defesa (Order of Merit of Defense) (degree of Grand Official)
 * Ordem Nacional do Mérito Científico (National Order of Scientific Merit) (Grand Cross) - President of the Republic of Brazil - Mar/1998.
 * Medalha do pacificador (Pacifier Medal) (Port Min No 791 of 28 Sep 83 / No. 41 BE, 14 Oct 83)
 * Medalha Mérito Tamandaré (Tamandaré Merit Medal) (Air Force)
 * Ordem do Ipiranga (Order of Ipiranga) (São Paulo, degree of Grand Officer)