Don Syme is an Australian
computer scientist
A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science.
Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...
and a Principal Researcher at
Microsoft Research
Microsoft Research (MSR) is the research subsidiary of Microsoft. It was created in 1991 by Richard Rashid, Bill Gates and Nathan Myhrvold with the intent to advance state-of-the-art computing and solve difficult world problems through technologi ...
, Cambridge, U.K. He is the designer and architect of the
F# programming language, described by a reporter as being regarded as "the most original new face in computer languages since
Bjarne Stroustrup
Bjarne Stroustrup (; ; born 30 December 1950) is a Danish computer scientist, most notable for the invention and development of the C++ programming language. As of July 2022, Stroustrup is a professor of Computer Science at Columbia University. ...
developed
C++
C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...
in the early 1980s."
[Syme, Don]
"Interview with Don Syme"
''Simple Talk'', 19 January 2010.
Earlier, Syme created
generics in the .NET Common Language Runtime, including the initial design of generics for the
C# programming language, along with others including Andrew Kennedy
and later
Anders Hejlsberg
Anders Hejlsberg (, born 2 December 1960) is a Danish software engineer who co-designed several programming languages and development tools. He was the original author of Turbo Pascal and the chief architect of Delphi. He currently works for Mic ...
. Kennedy, Syme and Dachuan Yu also formalized this widely used system.
He holds a Ph.D. from the
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
,
and is a member of the WG2.8 working group on functional programming. He is a co-author of the book ''Expert F# 3.0''.
[Syme, Don et al]
"Expert F# at Apress"
''Apress
Springer Nature or the Springer Nature Group is a German-British academic publishing company created by the May 2015 merger of Springer Science+Business Media and Holtzbrinck Publishing Group's Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, and Macm ...
'', November 2012.
In the past he also worked on
formal specification
In computer science, formal specifications are mathematically based techniques whose purpose are to help with the implementation of systems and software. They are used to describe a system, to analyze its behavior, and to aid in its design by verif ...
,
interactive proof,
automated verification
In the context of hardware and software systems, formal verification is the act of proving or disproving the correctness of intended algorithms underlying a system with respect to a certain formal specification or property, using formal metho ...
and
proof description languages.
[Syme, Don]
"Don Syme at Microsoft Research"
19 January 2010.
In 2015, he was honored with a Silver Medal from the
Royal Academy of Engineering
The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering.
The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior ...
.
["Microsoft researcher Don Syme honored with Silver Medal from Royal Academy of Engineering"](_blank)
See also
*
F Sharp Software Foundation
The F# Software Foundation (FSSF) is a non-profit organization devoted to the F Sharp (programming language), F# programming language. It was founded at the beginning of 2013 and became a 501(c)#501(c)(3), 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in Dece ...
References
External links
Don's Weblog on F#InfoQ Interview with Don Syme, 27 March 2009F# at Microsoft Research
{{DEFAULTSORT:Syme, Don
Programming language researchers
Programming language designers
Australian computer scientists
Living people
Microsoft Research people
Year of birth missing (living people)