Allen Benjamin Downey (born May 11, 1967) is an American

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

who is currently working as a Principal Data Scientist at PyMC Labs. He is 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. Its endowment had been funded primarily by the defunct F. W. Olin Foundation. Th ...

Biography

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

civil engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

, from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

, and his PhD in

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

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, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

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. Founded in 1985, it was one of the five original NSF supercomputing centers. Its research pursuits are high performance comput ...

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, United States. Founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, it was renamed Waterville College in 1821. The donations of Christian philanthropist Gardner ...

, and in 2000 at

Wellesley College Wellesley College is a Private university, private Women's colleges in the United States, historically women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henr ...

. He was research fellow at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

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.Allen B. Downey CV
at ''allendowney.com''. Accessed September 9, 2013

Textbook publications

Downey has published the following textbooks, which are also freely available online from Green Tea Press under the

GNU Free Documentation License The GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL or GFDL) is a copyleft license for free documentation, designed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) for the GNU Project. It is similar to the GNU General Public License, giving readers the rights ...

: *
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