Susan Stepney (born 1958) is a British computer scientist who is a professor at the University of York. Her research considers non-standard computing and bio-inspired algorithms. She was previously at Logica and Marconi Research Centre, where she developed new programming languages and computational models.
Stepney became interested in science and science fiction at a young age.[1] She completed her undergraduate and graduate degree at the University of Cambridge, where she studied theoretical physics and Part III of the Mathematical Tripos.[2] Her doctoral research involved using analytical mathematics and Fortran to understand relativistic astrophysics plasmas.[3][4] She was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge.[5] She left academia to join industry, moving to join the Marconi Research Centre, where she worked with Transputers and Occam on a Parallel Simulation Facility. She designed and implemented a tool for Graphical Representation of Activity, Interconnection and Loading. She used the Z specification language to develop a framework for an access control system that allowed users from multiple administrators to communicate whilst the administrators retained network-wide control.[6] She animated the access control system in Prolog.[6]
Research and career
Stepney moved to Logica in 1989, where she spent thirteen years working on mathematical modelling of computing systems and specialising in the Z notation. She worked on a high integrity compiler for high integrity applications, which became known as DeCCo.[7] Stepney's DeCCo compiler was deployed on processors at Qinetiq and Atomic Weapons Establishment. She developed a formal language tool for Logica using Smalltalk.[4]
In 2002, Stepney joined the University of York, where she worked on unconventional computing.[8] She has worked on physical computation and the programming requirements for unconventional requirements.[4] She has developed computer simulations of complex systems, including pioneering evolutionary algorithms for biological and chemical processes.[2][4]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
