Ann Patricia "Pat" Fothergill (''née'' Waddington, formerly Ambler; 13 February 1936 – 28 January 2017) was a pioneer in robotics and robot control languages in the AI department of the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

. She moved to the

University of Aberdeen The University of Aberdeen (abbreviated ''Aberd.'' in List of post-nominal letters (United Kingdom), post-nominals; ) is a public university, public research university in Aberdeen, Scotland. It was founded in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bis ...

in 1986 to join the Department of Computing as a senior lecturer, where she remained until her death.

Early life and education

Pat Fothergill was born in

Woodford Wells Woodford Wells is a small settlement on the edge of Epping Forest, in Woodford, East London. The area lies about north-east of Charing Cross. The name is shown in the Chapman and Andre 1777 map of Essex, and shortly after on an Ordnance Surve ...

, Essex, England in 1936 to an English father Leonard and a Welsh mother Sarah (née Kinton). During her early childhood, her family moved to Singapore and then to South Africa to accommodate her father's career as a civil engineer. She attended Dorking County Grammar School, where she was a Prefect and received the Governors' Prize for her academic achievements. She excelled in math and science, studying Pure Mathematics, Applied Mathematics, Physics, and Chemistry for her

A-Level exams The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational au ...

. She received distinction in Pure Mathematics and a State Scholarship from the UK Ministry of Education to attend

Newnham College, Cambridge Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicen ...

. While at Cambridge, she studied for the

Natural Sciences Tripos The Natural Sciences Tripos is the framework within which most of the science at the University of Cambridge is taught. The tripos includes a wide range of Natural Sciences from physics, astronomy, and geoscience, to chemistry and biology, whi ...

, specialising in Chemistry, Physics, Biological Chemistry and Mathematics. She also studied for the Archaeological and Anthropological

Tripos TRIPOS (''TRIvial Portable Operating System'') is a computer operating system. Development started in 1976 at the Computer Laboratory of Cambridge University and it was headed by Dr. Martin Richards. The first version appeared in January 1978 a ...

. She graduated with a BA in 1957 and an MA in 1961.UA Exam.L.91-2. Cambridge University Archives. Retrieved 18 May 2017.

Career

Following graduation, Fothergill remained at Cambridge with her first husband Richard Ambler, who was then a graduate student in biological sciences, and worked as the information officer for the organic chemistry department with

Alexander R. Todd Alexander Robertus Todd, Baron Todd (2 October 1907 – 10 January 1997) was a British biochemist whose research on the structure and synthesis of nucleotides, nucleosides, and nucleotide coenzymes gained him the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 195 ...

. She joined the AI laboratory at the

in 1968 as a research scientist. She helped develop the robot command language RAPT, and worked with

Robin Popplestone Robin John Popplestone (9 December 1938 in Bristol – 14 April 2004 in Glasgow) was a pioneer in the fields of machine intelligence and robotics. He is known for developing the POP programming languages COWSEL (renamed POP-1), POP-2, POP-11, ...

and Rod Burstall amongst others. Whilst at Aberdeen, Pat co-authored the paper "WPFM: the Workspace Prediction and Fast Matching Algorithm" with Jonathan C Aylett and Robert B Fisher. This was later included in John E. W. Mayhew and John P. Frisby's "3D Model Recognition From Stereoscopic Cues"

References

External links

Obituary in AISB Quarterly
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fothergill, Pat British artificial intelligence researchers Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge British roboticists Women roboticists British women computer scientists Programming language researchers Academics of the University of Edinburgh Academics of the University of Aberdeen 1936 births 2017 deaths