Daniel Jackson (born 1963) is a professor of

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 (includin ...

at the

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

(MIT). He is the principal designer of the

Alloy An alloy is a mixture of chemical elements of which at least one is a metal. Unlike chemical compounds with metallic bases, an alloy will retain all the properties of a metal in the resulting material, such as electrical conductivity, ductilit ...

modelling language, and author of the book ''Software Abstractions: Logic, Language, and Analysis''.

Biography

Jackson was born in London, England, in 1963. He studied

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which rel ...

at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's second-oldest university in contin ...

, receiving an MA in 1984. After completing his MA, Jackson worked for two years as a software engineer at

Logica Logica plc was a multinational IT and management consultancy company headquartered in London and later Reading, United Kingdom. Founded in 1969, the company had offices in London and in a number of major cities across England, Wales and Scot ...

UK Ltd. He then returned to academia to study computer science at MIT, where he received an SM in 1988, and a PhD in 1992. Following the completion of his doctorate Jackson took up a position as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

, which he held until 1997. He has been on the faculty of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT since 1997. In 2017 he became a

Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

. Jackson is also a photographer, and has an interest in the

straight photography Straight may refer to: Slang * Straight, slang for heterosexual ** Straight-acting, an LGBT person who does not exhibit the appearance or mannerisms of the gay stereotype * Straight, a member of the straight edge subculture Sport and games * ...

style. The

MIT Museum The MIT Museum, founded in 1971, is located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It hosts collections of holography, technology-related artworks, artificial intelligence, architecture, robotics, maritime histor ...

commissioned a series of photographs of

MIT 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 ...

laboratories from him, displayed from May to December 2012, to accompany an exhibit of images by

Berenice Abbott Berenice Alice Abbott (July 17, 1898 – December 9, 1991) was an American photographer best known for her portraits of between-the-wars 20th century cultural figures, New York City photographs of architecture and urban design of the 1930s, and ...

. Jackson is the son of software engineering researcher Michael A. Jackson, developer of Jackson Structured Programming (JSP), Jackson System Development (JSD), and the Problem Frames Approach.

Research

Jackson's research is broadly concerned with improving the dependability of software. He is a proponent of lightweight formal methods. Jackson and his students developed the

language and its associated

Alloy Analyzer In computer science and software engineering, Alloy is a declarative specification language for expressing complex structural constraints and behavior in a software system. Alloy provides a simple structural modeling tool based on first-order log ...

analysis tool to provide support for lightweight specification and modelling efforts. Between 2004 and 2007, Jackson chaired a multi-year

United States National Research Council The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (also known as NASEM or the National Academies) are the collective scientific national academy of the United States. The name is used interchangeably in two senses: (1) as an umbrell ...

study on dependable systems.

Selected publications

* * * *

References

External links

Daniel Jackson MIT home page

Daniel Jackson photography website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Daniel 1963 births Living people Photographers from London Alumni of the University of Oxford British computer programmers British expatriate academics in the United States MIT School of Engineering alumni Carnegie Mellon University faculty MIT School of Engineering faculty English computer scientists Formal methods people Software engineering researchers Computer science writers 20th-century British photographers 21st-century British photographers Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery