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,^[1] which developed the Norcroft C compiler.^{[6][7][8][9][10]}

Education and early life

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

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.

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

Fitch is married to historian Audrey Fitch.

References