Jim Woodcock
British computer scientist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
James Charles Paul Woodcock is a British computer scientist.
Jim Woodcock | |
|---|---|
| Born | 7 June 1956 |
| Alma mater | University of Liverpool |
| Known for | CSP, UTP, Z notation |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer science, formal methods |
| Institutions | University of Oxford University of Kent University of York Aarhus University Southwest University |
| Website | www.cs.york.ac.uk/people/jim |
Woodcock gained his PhD from the University of Liverpool. Until 2001, he was Professor of Software Engineering at the Oxford University Computing Laboratory, where he was also a Fellow of Kellogg College.[1] He then joined the University of Kent and was later based at the University of York,[2] where, from October 2012-2016, he was head of the Department of Computer Science, retiring in 2024.
His research interests include: strong software engineering, Grand Challenge in dependable systems evolution, unifying theories of programming, formal specification, refinement, concurrency, state-rich systems, mobile and reconfigurable processes, nanotechnology, Grand Challenge in the railway domain. He has a background in formal methods, especially the Z notation[3] and CSP.
Woodcock worked on applying the Z notation to the IBM CICS project, helping to gain a Queen's Award for Technological Achievement,[4] and Mondex, helping to gain the highest ITSEC classification level.[5]
Prof. Woodcock was editor-in-chief of the Formal Aspects of Computing journal from 2007 until 2025.[6]
In September 2024, a Festschrift Symposium was held for Woodcock at the University of York, celebrating his retirement,[7] with an associated proceedings volume.[8] After his official retirement from the University of York, he continued to work at Aarhus University in Denmark[9] and Southwest University in China.[10]
Books
- Jim Woodcock and Jim Davies, Using Z: Specification, Refinement, and Proof. Prentice-Hall International Series in Computer Science, 1996. ISBN 978-0-13-948472-8.
- Jim Woodcock and Martin Loomes, Software Engineering Mathematics: Formal Methods Demystified. Kindle Edition, Taylor & Francis, 2007.
