Academic Career
He was a doctoral student of Alonzo Church at Princeton University, receiving his Ph.D. in 1947. He became Professor of Mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he had a position from 1953. He received the 1964 Chauvenet Prize for exposition. He was a collaborator of Alfred Tarski, and an ally in promoting logic.
Henkin was also a social activist who since the 1960s worked to increase higher education opportunities for women and minorities. In 1964 he spearheaded the formation of the Special Scholarships Committee at UC Berkeley, which resulted in setting up Special Opportunity Scholarships and other outreach programs at Berkeley. The Berkeley program served as a model for the federal Upward Bound Program that was founded several years later and for many outreach and special opportunities programs at other U.S. universities.
His doctoral students include Carol Karp and Philip Treisman.
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