John Fitch (computer scientist)
John Fitch | |
|---|---|
| Born | John Peter Fitch December 1945 (age 80)[1] Barnsley, UK |
| Died | June 11, 2026 (aged 80) Bath, UK |
| Other name | John ffitch |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
| Awards | Adams Prize (1975) |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of Bath University of Leeds Maynooth University |
| Thesis | An algebraic manipulator (1971) |
| David Barton[2] | |
Doctoral students | James Davenport[2] Tom Crick[3] |
John Peter Fitch (also known as John ffitch) was 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 was 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,[1] which developed the Norcroft C compiler.[6][7][8][9][10]
Education and early life
[edit]Born in Barnsley, Yorkshire, England in December 1945,[1] 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.[2][11][12]
Career and research
[edit]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[2] and Tom Crick.[3]
Personal life
[edit]Fitch was married to historian Audrey Fitch.[citation needed]
He died in Bath on 11 June 2026, following a fall at home.[citation needed]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 "Officers - Codemist Limited, Company number 02197915". companieshouse.gov.uk. Companies House. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
- 1 2 3 4 John Fitch at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
- 1 2 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.
- ↑ John Fitch at DBLP Bibliography Server
- ↑ "Csound". csound.github.io. Retrieved 28 June 2026.
- ↑ John Fitch's home page at Bath (archived)
- ↑ John Fitch's academic profile at Bath
- ↑ Musical Output of John ffitch
- ↑ John ffitch at GitHub
- ↑ Codemist Ltd, John's former company
- ↑ Fitch, John Peter (1971). An algebraic manipulator. cam.ac.uk (PhD thesis). University of Cambridge. OCLC 500442208. EThOS uk.bl.ethos.455552.
- 1 2 3 "John fitch". LinkedIn. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
- ↑ "Prof John ffitch". Retrieved 8 September 2016.
- ↑ anon (24 October 2011). "Minutes of the Meeting of the Academic Council". Appointment of Adjunct Honorary Professor.
{{cite web}}: Missing or empty|url=(help) - ↑ "John ffitch". Archived from the original on 15 September 2016. Retrieved 7 September 2016.
- ↑ "John ffitch - the composer". 5 September 2001. Archived from the original on 19 September 2015.
- ↑ John ffitch (6 May 2011). "Invited Session: Running Csound in Parallel". Linux Audio Conference 2011. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| Other | |