Barry and Symbolic Computing

Journal article, 2026

This short note gives a tribute to Barry in a matter which is probably known only to a very few people, if at all. Namely, at a very early stage, he realized the enormous potentials of symbolic computation/computer algebra, which was then still in its infancy. This is documented by a special session that he organized at the 1986 Winter Meeting of the ANS. Although he did not pursue this line further back then, his insight was visionary, as evidenced by the spread of the use of symbolic computations in computational science in general and in nuclear engineering in particular. Not to mention that symbolic computation is also one of the forerunners of artificial intelligence, which is currently mastered by Barry to perfection; this will also be mentioned. This tribute is intertwined (but hopefully not dominated) with some personal reminiscences, including my first meeting with Barry when I returned to academia in 1991, which I also want to share with Barry's friends and colleagues.