Trevor Pearcey (5 March 1919 – 27 January 1998) was a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

-born Australian scientist, who created

CSIRAC CSIRAC (; ''Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Automatic Computer''), originally known as CSIR Mk 1, was Australia's first digital computer, and the fifth stored-program computer in the world. It is the oldest surviving first-gene ...

, one of the first stored-program electronic computers in the world. Born in

Woolwich Woolwich () is a town in South London, southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was mainta ...

, London, he graduated from

Imperial College Imperial College London, also known as Imperial, is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria, who envisioned a cultural district in South Kensington that included museums ...

in 1940 with first class honours 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 ...

and

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

. He emigrated to Australia in 1945. In a 1948 paper, published in the ''Australian Journal of Science'', he envisaged using a digital electronic computer for providing information over a national telecommunications network: He bet that he could make an electronic device that would be 1000 times faster than the best electronic device of the time. One of his calculators filled a small room, weighing 7 tons. He was awarded a

D.Sc. A Doctor of Science (; most commonly abbreviated DSc or ScD) is a science doctorate awarded in a number of countries throughout the world. Africa Algeria and Morocco In Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia, all universities accredited by the s ...

by the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne (colloquially known as Melbourne University) is a public university, public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in the state ...

in 1971. In his later years he lived on the

Mornington Peninsula The Mornington Peninsula is a peninsula located in the south of Greater Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is surrounded by Port Phillip to the west, Western Port to the east and Bass Strait to the south, and is connected to ...

near

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. The

Pearcey Foundation The Pearcey Foundation is an Australian organisation dedicated to raising the profile of the Australian information technology and telecommunications industry. The foundation was formed in 1998 and is named after Trevor Pearcey, an Australian eng ...

and the Pearcey Award for outstanding achievement by an Australian in the ICT industry are named after him.

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* 1919 births 1998 deaths 20th-century English mathematicians Alumni of Imperial College London Australian computer scientists English emigrants to Australia Founders of charities People from Woolwich Scientists from London Scientists from Melbourne {{Australia-scientist-stub

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