John Makepeace Bennett (31 July 1921 – 9 December 2010) was an early

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

computer scientist. He was Australia's first professor of computer science and the founding president of the

Australian Computer Society The Australian Computer Society (ACS) is an association for information and communications technology professionals with over 48,000 members Australia-wide. According to its Constitution, its objectives are "to advance professional excellence ...

. His pioneering career included work on early computers such as EDSAC, Ferranti Mark 1* and

SILLIAC The SILLIAC (''Sydney version of the Illinois Automatic Computer'', i.e. the ''Sydney ILLIAC''), an early computer built by the University of Sydney, Australia, was based on the ILLIAC and ORDVAC computers developed at the University of Illin ...

, and spreading the word about the use of computers through computing courses and computing associations.

Personal life

John Bennett was born in 1921 at

Warwick, Queensland Warwick ( ) is a town and locality in southeast Queensland, Australia, lying south-west of Brisbane. It is the administrative centre of the Southern Downs Region local government area. The surrounding Darling Downs have fostered a strong agr ...

, the son of Albert John Bennett and Elsie Winifred née Bourne.''Australian computing pioneer pushed technological frontiers''
, Sydney Morning Herald, 27 Dec 2010, retrieved 4 Jan 2011 In 1952 he married Rosalind Mary Elkington (who was also working at

Ferranti Ferranti or Ferranti International plc was a UK electrical engineering and equipment firm that operated for over a century from 1885 until it went bankrupt in 1993. The company was once a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. The firm was known ...

).Elkington Internet Family Tree
Retrieved 10 November 2006 They had four children: Christopher John, Ann Margaret, Susan Elizabeth and Jane Mary. In 1986 Bennett, aged 65, retired with his wife to Sydney's Northern Beaches. Bennett died at home on 9 December 2010 and was survived by his wife, four children and six grandchildren.

Education and War Service

John Bennett was educated at

The Southport School , motto_translation = Let him who deserves the palm of victory bear it. , established = , type = Independent early learning, primary and secondary day and boarding school , denomination = Anglican , headmaster = Andrew Hawkins , fou ...

. After which, he went to the

University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = B ...

to study

civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...

. From 1942 until 1946 (during

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

), he served in the

RAAF "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

. He worked on a radar unit on the

Wessel Islands The Wessel Islands is a group of uninhabited islands in the Northern Territory of Australia. They extend in a more or less straight line from Buckingham Bay and the Napier Peninsula of Arnhem Land, and Elcho Island, to the northeast. Marchinbar ...

and later worked in airfield construction. He then returned to the University of Queensland to study

electrical Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...

and

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, an ...

and mathematics.

Professional life

In 1947 he went to

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III of England, Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world' ...

to become

Maurice Vincent Wilkes Sir Maurice Vincent Wilkes (26 June 1913 – 29 November 2010) was a British computer scientist who designed and helped build the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC), one of the earliest stored program computers, and who inv ...

' first research assistant as part of the team working to build EDSAC.Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre
'The First computers, 1951 to 1956'
Technology in Australia 1788-1988. Retrieved 7 November 2006. This was the world's first practical stored program electronic computer, and the world's first computer in regular operation from 1949. He used EDSAC to carry out the first ever structural engineering calculations on a computer as part of his PhD. He worked for

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

and

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

as a computer specialist. Here he designed the instruction set for Ferranti Mark 1*, which was the main improvement of that machine over

Ferranti Mark 1 The Ferranti Mark 1, also known as the Manchester Electronic Computer in its sales literature, and thus sometimes called the Manchester Ferranti, was produced by British electrical engineering firm Ferranti Ltd. It was the world's first commer ...

. In 1956, Bennett returned to Australia to become Numerical Analyst (and later Senior Numerical Analyst) to the Adolph Basser Laboratory at the

University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD), also known as Sydney University, or informally Sydney Uni, is a public research university located in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is one of the country's ...

.JOHN MAKEPEACE BENNETT: A speech delivered in his honour in the Great Hall of the

by Dr. J. Seberry on 11 November 1986. (read tex
Adobe PostScriptHTML
His main work was the development of software for

. Until 1958 he taught associated courses in the use of computers. In 1958 he established a Postgraduate Diploma in Numerical Analysis and Computing which was later changed to the Postgraduate Diploma in Computer Science. In 1961, the Basser Laboratory became the Basser Computing Department and John Bennet became Professor of Physics (Electronic Computing). In 1972 the Basser Computing Department was split into the Basser Department of Computer Science (for teaching and research) and the University Computer Centre. John Bennett was appointed head of the new Basser Department of Computer Science, but it was not until 1982 that John Bennett's title was changed to be Professor of Computer Science - a title which he held until his retirement in 1987. He was also the Foundation Chairman of the Australian Committee on Computation and Automatic Control from 1959 to 1963, the President of the New South Wales Computer Society from 1965 to 1966, and the Foundation President of the

from 1966 to 1967. In 1981 he helped found the Research Foundation for Information Technology at the University.

Awards

In 1983 he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for service to computing science. In 2001 he was awarded the Centenary Medal for service to Australian society in computer science and technology.Centenary Medal
, 1 January 2001, It's an Honour In 2004 Bennett was awarded the Pearcey Medal, an annual award presented to a distinguished Australian for a lifetime and outstanding contribution to the ICT industry.

References

External links