Martyn Thomas (born 1948) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

independent consultant and software engineer.

Biography

Martyn Thomas founded the software engineering company

Praxis Praxis may refer to: Philosophy and religion *Praxis (process), the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, practised, embodied, or realised * Praxis model, a way of doing theology * Praxis (Byzantine Rite), the practice of fai ...

in 1983, based in

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

, southern England. He has a special interest in

safety-critical system A safety-critical system or life-critical system is a system whose failure or malfunction may result in one (or more) of the following outcomes: * death or serious injury to people * loss or severe damage to equipment/property * environmental h ...

s and other high integrity applications. He has acted as an

expert witness An expert witness, particularly in common law countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the judge as ...

involving complex software engineering issues. Thomas was born in

Salisbury Salisbury ( , ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers River Avon, Hampshire, Avon, River Nadder, Nadder and River Bourne, Wi ...

, southern England. He studied

biochemistry Biochemistry, or biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology, a ...

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

, graduating in 1969, when he started working in the field of computing. Between 1969 and 1983, he was employed at universities in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, at STC working on telecommunications software, and at the South West Universities Regional Computer Centre in Bath. In 1983, Thomas founded Praxis with David Bean, where he encouraged the use of

formal methods In computer science, formal methods are mathematics, mathematically rigorous techniques for the formal specification, specification, development, Program analysis, analysis, and formal verification, verification of software and computer hardware, ...

within the company for

software development Software development is the process of designing and Implementation, implementing a software solution to Computer user satisfaction, satisfy a User (computing), user. The process is more encompassing than Computer programming, programming, wri ...

. In 1986, Praxis became the first independent systems house to achieve BS 5750 (later ISO 9001) certification for all its activities. Praxis became internationally recognised as a leader in the use of rigorous software engineering, including formal methods, and grew to around 200 staff. In December 1992, Praxis was sold to Deloitte and Touche, an international firm of accountants and management consultants, and Martyn became a Deloitte Consulting international partner whilst remaining chairman and, later, managing director of Praxis. He left Deloitte Consulting in 1997. He is currently director of Martyn Thomas Associates Limited and a visiting professor at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

, and a Fellow and

Emeritus Professor ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

Gresham College Gresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in Central London, England that does not accept students or award degrees. It was founded in 1597 under the Will (law), will of Sir Thomas Gresham, ...

. He lives in London.

Current career

Fellow, Emeritus Professor and member of Council.

,
Visiting Professor of Software Engineering at

Aberystwyth University Aberystwyth University () is a Public university, public Research university, research university in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding member institution of the former federal University of Wales. The university has over 8,000 stude ...

, UK,
Fellow at The Royal Academy of Engineering,
Member at UK Computing Research Committee,
Owner, Principal Consultant and Expert Witness at MTAL.,

Past career

Non-executive director of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE),
IT Livery Company Professor of Information Technology at Gresham College,
Member of Advisory Council at Foundation for Information Policy Research,
Non-executive Director of the Serious Organised Crime Agency,
Non-executive Director of the Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education,
Fellow at British Computer Society,
Chair, Executive Board at DEPLOY Project,
Member, "Sufficient Evidence" study at National Academies / CSTB,
Chair, Steering Committee at DIRC,
Member of Council at EPSRC,
Member of Advisory Group at OST Foresight programmes,
Partner at

Deloitte Consulting Deloitte is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of employees, and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, along wit ...

,
Founder/Chairman/managing director at Praxis,
Chairman at Praxis Critical Systems,
Deputy Director at SWURCC,
Software Engineer at STC.

Honors and awards

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

, CBE,

Fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

of 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 senio ...

,
Honorary DSc (Hull),
Honorary DSc (Edinburgh),
Honorary DSc (City),
Honorary DSc (Bath), Dr of Engineering,
IEE Achievement Medal, Computing and Control,
Who's Who.

References

External links

Martyn Thomas Associates Limited website

IT Livery Professor, Gresham College
*
Martyn Thomas biography
from the

IET __NOTOC__ IET can refer to: Organizations * Institute of Educational Technology, part of the Open University * Institution of Engineering and Technology, a UK-based professional engineering institution ** Institute of Engineers and Technicians, wh ...

Oxford University Computing Laboratory home page
*
Dr Thomas Oration, University of Bath
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thomas, Martyn 1948 births Living people People from Salisbury Alumni of University College London British software engineers Formal methods people People in information technology British corporate directors Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Fellows of the British Computer Society Fellows of the Institution of Engineering and Technology Members of the Department of Computer Science, University of Oxford People from Bath, Somerset Academics of Aberystwyth University