Bruce Howard McCormick (1928–2007) was 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 ...

, Emeritus Professor at the Department of Computer Science, and founding director of the Brain Networks Lab at

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

Biography

McCormick took his BS in

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, 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 whi ...

from

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

in 1950, followed by two years on a Fulbright Scholarship to

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, England. There he studied quantum field theory with Professor

Paul Dirac Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac ( ; 8 August 1902 – 20 October 1984) was an English mathematician and Theoretical physics, theoretical physicist who is considered to be one of the founders of quantum mechanics. Dirac laid the foundations for bot ...

, founder of the field of quantum mechanics and holder of the 1933 Nobel Prize in Physics, shared with Professor

Erwin Schrödinger Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrödinger ( ; ; 12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961), sometimes written as or , was an Austrian-Irish theoretical physicist who developed fundamental results in quantum field theory, quantum theory. In particul ...

. McCormick returned to the U.S. to take his PhD in physics at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1955, with the thesis "Two investigations in meson theory in the non-relativistic limit". He then became a Postdoctoral Fellow at

Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratories, United States Department of Energy national laboratory located in Upton, New York, a hamlet of the Brookhaven, New York, Town of Brookhaven. It w ...

.Kathy Flores (2007)
"Dr. Bruce H. McCormick"
Texas A&M University. Retrieved 9 July 2008. In 1957 McCormick accepted a post as staff physicist at the Alvarez Hydrogen Bubble Chamber Group at the

Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL, Berkeley Lab) is a federally funded research and development center in the hills of Berkeley, California, United States. Established in 1931 by the University of California (UC), the laboratory is spo ...

. The Chamber Group was led by Dr. Luis Alvarez, who later won the 1968 Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1960 Dr. McCormick began 12 years at the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

where he was a professor of physics, computer science, and bioengineering. Afterwards, he served as head of the electrical engineering and computer science department at the

University of Illinois at Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the Universi ...

. McCormick joined Texas A&M in 1983 as the first department head of the newly formed Department of Computer Science in the Dwight Look College of Engineering. In August 2005 Dr. McCormick retired from Texas A&M but continued his research there, exploring and understanding the complexity and scaling properties of the brain's microcircuit structure. McCormick died the first week of December 2007 in

Rio Rancho, New Mexico Rio Rancho () is the largest and most populous city in Sandoval County, part of the expansive Albuquerque metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of New Mexico. A small portion of the city extends into northern Bernalillo County. It is the thi ...

Publications

McCormick has authored numerous books and articles.Bruce H McCormick
ACM author profile page. ;Books: * 1966. ''Design concepts for an information resource center with option of an attached automated laboratory''. With A. M. Richardson. * 1968. ''Pattern articulation unit of Illiac III; homogenous Boolean functions in the iterative array.'' William J. Watson and Richard T. Borovec. * 1968. ''Illiac III programming manual''. Edited with R. Lansford. * 1970. ''Illiac III computer system; brief description and annotated bibliography''. * 1971. ''Illiac III reference manual''. Edited with B.J. Nordmann and others. * 1971. ''Interval generalization of switching theory''. With R.S. Michalski. * 1972. ''Analysis of texture''. With S. N. Jayaramamurthy. * 1987. ''Visualization in Scientific Computing''. Edited with

Thomas A. DeFanti Thomas Albert "Tom" DeFanti (born September 18, 1948) is an American computer graphics researcher and pioneer. His work has ranged from early computer animation, to scientific visualization, virtual reality, and grid computing. He is a distinguish ...

and Maxine D. Brown. ACM Press. ;Articles, a selection: * 1987. "The Usable Intersection of PC Graphics and NTSC Video Recording". With D.J. Sandin. In: ''IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications''. Oct. 1987, pp. 50–58. * 1987. "Visualization in Scientific Computing". With T.A. DeFanti and M.D. Brown. In: ''Computer Graphics''. Vol. 21, No. 6, Nov. 1987. * 1988. "Scientific Animation Workstations". With M.D. Brown. in: ''SuperComputing''. Fall 1988, pp. 10–13. * 1989. "Scientific Animation Workstations: Creating an Environment for Remote Research, Education, and Communication". With M.D. Brown. In: ''Academic Computing''. Feb. 1989, pp. 10–12, 55-57. * 1989. "Insight Through Images". With M.D. Brown. In: '' UNIX Review''. Mar. 1989, pp. 42–50. * 1989. "Visualization: Expanding Scientific and Engineering Research Opportunities". With Thomas A. DeFanti and Maxine D. Brown. In: ''Computer''. vol. 22, no. 8, pp. 12–25, Aug., 1989 * 1990. "Advanced visualization environments: knowledge-based image modeling". In: ''Visualization in supercomputing''. July 1990. Pp 135–150. * 1997. "Grid generation for brain visualization at the cellular and tissue level". With David A. Batte. In: ''CNS '96: Proceedings of the annual conference on Computational neuroscience : trends in research, 1997''. New York : Plenum Press.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCormick, Bruce H. 1928 births 2007 deaths Harvard University alumni American computer scientists Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni Texas A&M University faculty Data and information visualization experts Alumni of the University of Cambridge University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty Place of birth missing