This article's
lead section may be too short to adequately
summarize the key points. (February 2023) |
Joe Armstrong | |
---|---|
Born |
Bournemouth, England, UK | 27 December 1950
Died | 20 April 2019 | (aged 68)
Alma mater | University College London, UK; Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden |
Occupation(s) | Computer programmer, professor, author |
Known for | Creating the Erlang programming language |
Spouse | Helen Taylor |
Children | Thomas Armstrong, Claire Armstrong |
Scientific career | |
Institutions |
University of Edinburgh Ericsson Computer Science Lab KTH |
Website |
joearms |
Joseph Leslie Armstrong (27 December 1950 – 20 April 2019) was a computer scientist working in the area of fault-tolerant distributed systems. He is best known as one of the co-designers of the Erlang programming language.
Armstrong was born in Bournemouth, England in 1950. [1] [2]
At 17, Armstrong began programming in Fortran on his local council's mainframe. [1]
Armstrong graduated with a B.Sc. in Physics from University College London in 1972. [2]
He received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden in 2003. [2] [3] His dissertation was titled Making reliable distributed systems in the presence of software errors. [4] He was a professor at KTH from 2014 until his death. [2]
After briefly working for Donald Michie at the University of Edinburgh, Armstrong moved to Sweden in 1974 and joined the Ericsson Computer Science Lab at Kista in 1984. [2]
Peter Seibel wrote:
Originally a physicist, he switched to computer science when he ran out of money in the middle of his physics PhD and landed a job as a researcher working for Donald Michie—one of the founders of the field of artificial intelligence in Britain. At Michie's lab, Armstrong was exposed to the full range of AI goodies, becoming a founding member of the British Robotics Association and writing papers about robotic vision. When funding for AI dried up as a result of the famous Lighthill report, it was back to physics-related programming for more than half a decade, first at the EISCAT scientific association and later the Swedish Space Corporation, before finally joining the Ericsson Computer Science Lab, where he invented Erlang. [5]
It was at Ericsson in 1986, that he worked with Robert Virding and Mike Williams, to invent the Erlang programming language, [2] which was released as open source in 1998. [6]
Armstrong married Helen Taylor in 1977. They had two children, Thomas and Claire. [2]
Armstrong died on 20 April 2019 from an infection which was complicated by pulmonary fibrosis. [7] [8] [9] [10]
This article's
lead section may be too short to adequately
summarize the key points. (February 2023) |
Joe Armstrong | |
---|---|
Born |
Bournemouth, England, UK | 27 December 1950
Died | 20 April 2019 | (aged 68)
Alma mater | University College London, UK; Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden |
Occupation(s) | Computer programmer, professor, author |
Known for | Creating the Erlang programming language |
Spouse | Helen Taylor |
Children | Thomas Armstrong, Claire Armstrong |
Scientific career | |
Institutions |
University of Edinburgh Ericsson Computer Science Lab KTH |
Website |
joearms |
Joseph Leslie Armstrong (27 December 1950 – 20 April 2019) was a computer scientist working in the area of fault-tolerant distributed systems. He is best known as one of the co-designers of the Erlang programming language.
Armstrong was born in Bournemouth, England in 1950. [1] [2]
At 17, Armstrong began programming in Fortran on his local council's mainframe. [1]
Armstrong graduated with a B.Sc. in Physics from University College London in 1972. [2]
He received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden in 2003. [2] [3] His dissertation was titled Making reliable distributed systems in the presence of software errors. [4] He was a professor at KTH from 2014 until his death. [2]
After briefly working for Donald Michie at the University of Edinburgh, Armstrong moved to Sweden in 1974 and joined the Ericsson Computer Science Lab at Kista in 1984. [2]
Peter Seibel wrote:
Originally a physicist, he switched to computer science when he ran out of money in the middle of his physics PhD and landed a job as a researcher working for Donald Michie—one of the founders of the field of artificial intelligence in Britain. At Michie's lab, Armstrong was exposed to the full range of AI goodies, becoming a founding member of the British Robotics Association and writing papers about robotic vision. When funding for AI dried up as a result of the famous Lighthill report, it was back to physics-related programming for more than half a decade, first at the EISCAT scientific association and later the Swedish Space Corporation, before finally joining the Ericsson Computer Science Lab, where he invented Erlang. [5]
It was at Ericsson in 1986, that he worked with Robert Virding and Mike Williams, to invent the Erlang programming language, [2] which was released as open source in 1998. [6]
Armstrong married Helen Taylor in 1977. They had two children, Thomas and Claire. [2]
Armstrong died on 20 April 2019 from an infection which was complicated by pulmonary fibrosis. [7] [8] [9] [10]