1959年,拉宾和达纳·斯科特共同发表了“有限自动机与其判定性问题”(Finite Automata and Their Decision Problems)的论文,提出了非确定自动机的观点。他们也因此获得了1976年的图灵奖,并做“逻辑与程序设计语言”(logic and Programming Language)的演讲。图灵奖的引文是:
^英文为:For their joint paper "Finite Automata and Their Decision Problem," which introduced the idea of nondeterministic machines, which has proved to be an enormously valuable concept. Their (Scott & Rabin) classic paper has been a continuous source of inspiration for subsequent work in this field.ACM Turing Award Citation[永久失效連結]