Biography:S. Barry Cooper
S. Barry Cooper | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 9 October 1943 Bognor Regis, West Sussex, England |
| Died | 26 October 2015 (aged 72) |
| Alma mater | Oxford University (Jesus College) |
| Known for | Association CiE, Alan Turing Year |
| Awards | Doctor honoris causa (Sofia University, 2011) |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of Leeds |
| Thesis | Degrees of Unsolvability (1970) |
| Doctoral advisor | Reuben Goodstein, C.E.M. Yates |
| 1st President of Association CiE | |
| In office 2008–2015 | |
| Succeeded by | Dag Normann |
S. Barry Cooper (9 October 1943 – 26 October 2015) was an English mathematician and computability theorist. He was a professor of Pure Mathematics at the University of Leeds.
Early life and education
Cooper grew up in Bognor Regis and attended Chichester High School for Boys, during which time he played scrum-half for the under-15s England rugby team.[1]
Cooper graduated from Jesus College, Oxford in 1966 and in 1970 received his PhD from the University of Leicester under the supervision of Reuben Goodstein and C.E.M. Yates, with a thesis entitled Degrees of Unsolvability.
Academic career
Cooper was appointed Lecturer in the School of Mathematics at the University of Leeds in 1969, where he remained for the rest of his career. He was promoted to Reader in Mathematical Logic in 1991 and to Professor of Pure Mathematics in 1996. In 2011, he was awarded an honorary doctorate at the University of Sofia "St. Kliment Ohridski".
His book Computability Theory made the technical research area accessible to a new generation of students. He was a leading mover of the return to basic questions of the kind considered by Alan Turing, and of interdisciplinary developments related to computability. He was President of the Association Computability in Europe, and Chair of the Turing Centenary Advisory Committee (TCAC), which co-ordinated the Alan Turing Year. The book Alan Turing: His Work and Impact, edited by Cooper and Jan van Leeuwen, won the Association of American Publishers' R. R. Hawkins Award.
Cooper was a member of the editorial board for The Rutherford Journal.[2]
Interests
Cooper was a keen long-distance runner, and was also interested in jazz and improvised music, founding Leeds Jazz and being involved in the Termite Club.
In the 1970s, he was also a leading figure in the Chile Solidarity Campaign, welcoming Chilean refugees to Leeds.
Death
Cooper died on 26 October 2015 after a short illness.[3]
Selected publications
- S. B. Cooper, 2004. Computability Theory, Chapman & Hall/CRC. ISBN:1-58488-237-9
- S. B. Cooper; J. van Leeuwen (eds.), 2013. Alan Turing – His Work and Impact, New York: Elsevier, ISBN:978-0-123-86980-7
- S. B. Cooper, B. Löwe, A. Sorbi (eds.), 2008. New Computational Paradigms – Changing Conceptions of What is Computable, Springer. ISBN:978-1-58488-237-4
- Cooper, S. B.; Harrington, L.; Lachlan, A. H.; Lempp, S.; Soare, R. I. (1991). "The d.r.e. degrees are not dense". Annals of Pure and Applied Logic 55 (2): 125–151. doi:10.1016/0168-0072(91)90005-7. http://www.math.wisc.edu/~lempp/papers/nonden.ps.
- Cooper, S. B. (2006). "Definability as hypercomputational effect". Applied Mathematics and Computation 178: 72–82. doi:10.1016/j.amc.2005.09.072. http://www.amsta.leeds.ac.uk/~pmt6sbc/preprints/hyp.comp.eff.pdf.
- Cooper, S. B. (2004). "The incomputable Alan Turing". doi:10.14236/ewic/TUR2004.2.
- Cooper, S. B.; Odifreddi, P. (2003). "Incomputability in Nature". Computability and Models: Perspectives East and West. Plenum Publishers, New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow. pp. 137–160. http://www.amsta.leeds.ac.uk/~pmt6sbc/preprints/co.pdf.
- Cooper, S. B. (1999). "Clockwork or Turing U/universe?". in S. B. Cooper. Models and Computability. London Mathematical Society Lecture Notes Series 259, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, New York, Melbourne. pp. 63–116. http://www.amsta.leeds.ac.uk/~pmt6sbc/preprints/clock.pdf.
References
- ↑ Obituary by Peter Lazenby in the Morning Star
- ↑ "Editorial board". The Rutherford Journal. http://www.rutherfordjournal.org/editorial.html. Retrieved 19 December 2016.
- ↑ University of Leeds, obituary
External links
- S. Barry Cooper homepage
- S. Barry Cooper's Mathematics Genealogy Page
- Computability in Europe homepage
- The Alan Turing Centenary homepage
| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by New position |
President of the Association CiE 2008-2015 |
Succeeded by Dag Normann |
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