John Fitch (computer scientist)

John Peter Fitch (also known as John ffitch) is a computer scientist, mathematician and composer, who has worked on relativity, planetary astronomy, computer algebra and Lisp.[4] Alongside Victor Lazzarini and Steven Yi, he is the project leader for audio programming language Csound,[5] having a leading role in its development since the early 1990s; and he was a director of Codemist Ltd,[3] which developed the Norcroft C compiler.[6][7][8][9][10]

John Fitch
Born
John Peter Fitch

1945 (age 78–79)[3]
Other namesJohn ffitch
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge
AwardsAdams Prize (1975)
Scientific career
InstitutionsUniversity of Bath
University of Leeds
Maynooth University
ThesisAn algebraic manipulator (1971)
Doctoral advisorDavid Barton[1]
Doctoral studentsTom Crick[2]
James Davenport[1]

Education and early life

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Born in Barnsley, Yorkshire, England in December 1945,[3] Fitch was educated at St John's College, Cambridge where he gained a PhD from the University of Cambridge in 1971 supervised by David Barton.[1][11][12]

Career and research

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Fitch spent six years at Cambridge as a postdoctoral researcher - winning the Adams Prize for Mathematics in 1975 for a joint essay with David Barton on Applications of algebraic manipulative systems to physics.[citation needed]

Fitch was a visiting professor the University of Utah for a year, then lectured at the University of Leeds for 18 months, before becoming professor and then chair of software engineering at the University of Bath,[12] which his biography claims is "a subject about which he knows little"; his 31-year career there lasted April 1980 – September 2011,[12] after which he was named an adjunct professor of music at Maynooth University.[13][14]

Fitch lectured for the module CM20029: The Essence of Compilers, as well as optional modules involving computer music and digital signal processing. According to his biography, "despite his long hair and beard,[15] and the uncertain spelling of his name, [he] was never a hippie".[16][17]

His former doctoral students include James Davenport[1] and Tom Crick.[2]

Personal life

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Fitch is married to historian Audrey Fitch.[citation needed]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d John Fitch at the Mathematics Genealogy Project  
  2. ^ a b Crick, Thomas (2009). Superoptimisation: provably optimal code generation using answer set programming. bath.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Bath. OCLC 757105245. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.518295.  
  3. ^ a b c "Officers - Codemist Limited, Company number 02197915". companieshouse.gov.uk. Companies House. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  4. ^ John Fitch at DBLP Bibliography Server  
  5. ^ https://csound.github.io
  6. ^ John Fitch's home page at Bath (archived)
  7. ^ John Fitch's academic profile at Bath
  8. ^ Musical Output of John ffitch
  9. ^ John ffitch at GitHub
  10. ^ Codemist Ltd, John's former company
  11. ^ Fitch, John Peter (1971). An algebraic manipulator. cam.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC 500442208. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.455552.
  12. ^ a b c "John fitch". LinkedIn. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  13. ^ "Prof John ffitch". Retrieved 8 September 2016.
  14. ^ anon (24 October 2011). "Minutes of the Meeting of the Academic Council". Appointment of Adjunct Honorary Professor. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  15. ^ "John ffitch". Archived from the original on 15 September 2016. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
  16. ^ "John ffitch - the composer". 5 September 2001. Archived from the original on 19 September 2015.
  17. ^ John ffitch (6 May 2011). "Invited Session: Running Csound in Parallel". Linux Audio Conference 2011. Retrieved 8 September 2016.