[7] He went on to graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning a Ph.D. in 1962 under the supervision of Hartley Rogers, Jr., with a thesis on the subject of recursion theory.
[3][1] Fischer's thesis research concerned the effects of different models of computation on the efficiency of solving problems.
For instance, he showed how to generate the sequence of prime numbers using a one-dimensional cellular automaton, based on earlier solutions to the firing squad synchronization problem,[10] and his work in this area set the foundation for much later work on parallel algorithms.
His research in that area included the study of the semantics of databases, metadata, and incomplete information.
[3][5] Ted Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, was a graduate student of mathematics at the University of Michigan, where Fischer's father was a professor.
[3][2] Fischer claimed not to have ever met Kaczynski,[1][2] and speculated that he was targeted because he "went from pure math to theoretical computer science.