Over the last decades Bernhard Thalheim has played a major role in the database
and conceptual modelling communities. His research interests have spanned a
wide spectrum including database dependency theory, object-oriented databases,
triggers, abstract state machines, database and information systems design,
business processes, and many more.
In March 2012 Bernhard celebrated his 60th birthday. To mark this occasion
we invited many of Bernhard’s collaborators over the years to contribute to
a volume in his honor. This book is the result of these efforts. The collection
starts with an academic biography, followed by 20 scientific articles. Many of
the contributions also contain a personal tribute based on working experience
with Bernhard. The articles cover a broad range of topics, but they still only
represent a small fraction of Bernhard’s diverse areas of interest.
Each contribution was carefully reviewed by one or two readers. We would
like to thank all authors and all reviewers for their contributions and help in
producing this book.
We offer this volume to Bernhard in honor of his 60th birthday and in recognition
of his many inspiring contributions to the fields of databases, information
systems, conceptual modelling and software engineering.