Keith Douglas "Toch" Tocher (19 March 1921 – 30 December 1981) was a computer scientist known for contributions to

computer simulation Computer simulation is the running of a mathematical model on a computer, the model being designed to represent the behaviour of, or the outcome of, a real-world or physical system. The reliability of some mathematical models can be determin ...

. Tocher received a first-class BSc in mathematics in 1941 from

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

, a BSc in statistics in 1946 from

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, and a PhD in 1952 at

Imperial College London Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a Public university, public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a Al ...

. In 1958, he worked for

United Steel Companies The United Steel Companies was a steelmaking, engineering, coal mining and coal by-product group based in South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, England. History The company was registered in 1918 and the following year saw a joining together of ste ...

under

Anthony Stafford Beer Anthony Stafford Beer (25 September 1926 – 23 August 2002) was a British theorist, consultant and professor at Manchester Business School. He is known for his work in the fields of operational research and management cybernetics, and for his ...

, and developed the first discrete-event simulation package, the General Simulation Program (GSP), a program that used a common structure to execute a range of simulations. He was appointed professor of operational research at the

University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...

in 1980. He was awarded the silver medal of the

Operational Research Society The Operational Research Society (ORS), also known as The OR Society, is an international learned society in the field of operational research (OR), with more than 3,100 members (2021). It has its headquarters in Birmingham, England. History The ...

in 1967 and served as president from 1972 to 1973. Tocher was also one of the creators of the SRT division algorithm that is used in the hardware of many modern computers.

References

External links

Guide to the United Steel Companies Department of Operational Research and Cybernetics Handbooks, 1959-1960
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tocher, K. D. 1921 births 1981 deaths Alumni of Imperial College London Alumni of University College London British computer scientists