Muffy Calder
Computer Scientist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dame Muffy Calder (née Thomas; born 21 May 1958) is a Canadian-born British computer scientist, Vice-Principal and Head of College of Science and Engineering, and Professor of Formal Methods at the University of Glasgow. From 2012 to 2015 she was Chief Scientific Advisor[5] to the Scottish Government.[6][7][8][9][10][11]
21 May 1958
University of St Andrews (PhD)
Chief Scientific Advisor for Scotland
Muffy Calder | |
|---|---|
Calder at the University of St Andrews in 2013 | |
| Born | Muffy Thomas 21 May 1958 |
| Alma mater | University of Stirling (BSc) University of St Andrews (PhD) |
| Known for | feature interaction problem Chief Scientific Advisor for Scotland |
| Spouse | David James Calder (1998-present)[1] |
| Awards | FRSE (2000) FIEE (2002) FBCS (2002) OBE (2011) FREng (2013)[2] DSc (2024) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | formal methods |
| Institutions | University of Glasgow University of Stirling University of St Andrews University of Edinburgh |
| Thesis | The imperative implementation of algebraic data types (1988) |
| Doctoral advisor | Roy Dyckhoff[3][4] |
| Website | www |
Biography
Calder was born Muffy Thomas on 21 May 1958 in Shawinigan, Quebec, Canada to Carmen and Lois (Hallen) van Thomas. She graduated with a BSc degree in computer science from the University of Stirling,[12] and completed a PhD in computational science at the University of St Andrews in 1987 under the supervision of Roy Dyckhoff.[3][4] She published widely under the surname Thomas prior to her marriage to David Calder in 1998.[1]
She has worked at the University of Glasgow since 1988, and was Dean of Research in the College of Science and Engineering until 2012.[13] She became Chief Scientific Adviser to the Scottish Government on 1 March 2012.[12] Previously Calder has served as Chair of the UK Computing Research Committee and Chair of the British Computer Society Academy of Computing Research Committee.[12] She became Vice-Principal and Head of College of Science and Engineering in 2015.[14] In 2015 she was appointed to the Council of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.[15]
Research
Calder summarises her research interests as "mathematical modelling and automated reasoning for concurrent, communicating systems".[16] Calder published an influential overview on the feature interaction problem,[17] with more than 300 citations at Google Scholar.[9] Her research has extended to applying computer science methods to biochemical networks and cell signalling in bioinformatics, resulting in a number of papers.[9]
Awards and recognition
Calder was appointed Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to computer science[18] and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to research and education.[19]
She holds fellowships[2] of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (2000),[18] the British Computer Society (2002), the Institution of Electrical Engineers (2002) and the Royal Academy of Engineering (2013).[1][2][20]
In June 2024 Calder was awarded a DSc honoris causa by the University of St Andrews[21] in recognition of her contributions to computer science and her services to the wider scientific community.
Calder was listed as 21st most influential woman in Scotland, 2012, by The Herald.[22]
