Allen Benjamin Downey (born May 11, 1967) is an American computer scientist who is currently working as a Staff Scientist at DrivenData. He was a former Professor of Computer Science at the

Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering Olin College of Engineering, officially Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, is a private college focused on engineering and located in Needham, Massachusetts. Olin College is noted in the engineering community for its relatively recent fou ...

Biography

Downey received in 1989 his BS and in 1990 his MA, both in

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 the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, and his PhD in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...

from the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant uni ...

in 1997. He started his career as research fellow in the

San Diego Supercomputer Center The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) is an organized research unit of the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). SDSC is located at the UCSD campus' Eleanor Roosevelt College east end, immediately north the Hopkins Parking Structure. ...

in 1995. In 1997 he became assistant professor of computer science at

Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the city where it resides. The donations of Christian philant ...

, and in 2000 at Wellesley College. He was research fellow at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...

in 2002 and professor of computer science at the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering since 2003. In 2009-2010 he was also visiting scientist at

Google Inc. Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. I ...

Textbook publications

Downey has published the following textbooks, which are also freely available online from Green Tea Press under the GNU Free Documentation License:http://greenteapress.com/ *
Think Data Structures: Algorithms and Information Retrieval in Java
,'' Green Tea Press, July 7, 2017.
''Think Bayes: Bayesian Statistics in Python''
Green Tea Press, September 2013.
''Think Complexity: Complexity Science and Computational Modeling''
O’Reilly Media, March 2012.
''Think Stats: Probability and Statistics for Programmers''
O’Reilly Media, June 2011. * ''Complexity and Computation'', Green Tea Press, August 2011.

Green Tea Press, June 2011.

Cambridge University Press, March 2009. *

', CreateSpace, March 2009.
''Learning Perl the Hard Way''
CreateSpace, March 2009.
''The Little Book of Semaphores''
CreateSpace, March 2009. *
Think Python: An Introduction to Software Design
', CreateSpace, February 2009.
''Physical Modeling in MATLAB''
Green Tea Press, January 2008.

Green Tea Press, January 2002.

References

External links

Downey's personal website

Green Tea Press - Website for Downey's free textbooks

Recording of Downey's lecture on software synchronization and free textbooks at Northeastern University

Github - Allen Downey
{{DEFAULTSORT:Downey, Allen B. Living people American computer scientists Colby College faculty Computer science writers 1967 births