Philip Wadler
Encyclopedia
Computer scientist
A computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
known for his contributions to programming language design and type theory
Type theory
In mathematics, logic and computer science, type theory is any of several formal systems that can serve as alternatives to naive set theory, or the study of such formalisms in general...
. In particular, he has contributed to the theory behind functional programming
Functional programming
In computer science, functional programming is a programming paradigm that treats computation as the evaluation of mathematical functions and avoids state and mutable data. It emphasizes the application of functions, in contrast to the imperative programming style, which emphasizes changes in state...
and the use of monads in functional programming
Monads in functional programming
In functional programming, a monad is a programming structure that represents computations. Monads are a kind of abstract data type constructor that encapsulate program logic instead of data in the domain model...
, the design of the purely functional language Haskell
Haskell (programming language)
Haskell is a standardized, general-purpose purely functional programming language, with non-strict semantics and strong static typing. It is named after logician Haskell Curry. In Haskell, "a function is a first-class citizen" of the programming language. As a functional programming language, the...
, and the XQuery
XQuery
- Features :XQuery provides the means to extract and manipulate data from XML documents or any data source that can be viewed as XML, such as relational databases or office documents....
declarative query language. He is also author of the paper "Theorems for free!" that gave rise to much research on functional language optimization (see also Parametricity
Parametricity
Parametricity is a result in the theory of programming languages in computer science. The principle of parametricity dictates that functions with similar types have similar properties.- Theory of parametricity :...
).
Wadler received a BS degree in Mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
from Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
in 1977, an MS degree in Computer Science from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1979. He completed his PhD in Computer Science at Carnegie-Mellon University in 1984. His thesis was entitled "Listlessness is Better than Laziness" and was supervised by Nico Habermann
Nico Habermann
Arie Nicolaas Habermann , often known as Nico Habermann, was a noted Dutch computer scientist.Habermann was born in Groningen, Netherlands, and earned his B.S. in mathematics and physics and M.S. in mathematics from the Free University of Amsterdam in 1953 and 1958. After working as a mathematics...
.
Wadler was a Research Fellow at the Programming Research Group
Programming Research Group
The Programming Research Group is part of the Oxford University Computing Laboratory . It was founded by Christopher Strachey in 1965 and after his death, C.A.R. Hoare, FRS took over the leadership in 1977...
(part of the Oxford University Computing Laboratory
Oxford University Computing Laboratory
The Department of Computer Science, until 2011 named the Computing Laboratory , is a department of Oxford University in England...
) and St Cross College, Oxford
St Cross College, Oxford
St Cross College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is an all-graduate college, sharing attractive, traditional-style buildings on a central site in St Giles', just south of Pusey Street...
during 1983–87. He was progressively Lecturer, Reader, and Professor at the University of Glasgow
University of Glasgow
The University of Glasgow is the fourth-oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of Scotland's four ancient universities. Located in Glasgow, the university was founded in 1451 and is presently one of seventeen British higher education institutions ranked amongst the top 100 of the...
from 1987–96. Wadler was a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Labs
Bell Labs
Bell Laboratories is the research and development subsidiary of the French-owned Alcatel-Lucent and previously of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company , half-owned through its Western Electric manufacturing subsidiary.Bell Laboratories operates its...
, Lucent Technologies
Lucent Technologies
Alcatel-Lucent USA, Inc., originally Lucent Technologies, Inc. is a French-owned technology company composed of what was formerly AT&T Technologies, which included Western Electric and Bell Labs...
(1996–99) and then at Avaya Labs (1999–2003). Since 2003, he has been Professor of Theoretical Computer Science
Theoretical computer science
Theoretical computer science is a division or subset of general computer science and mathematics which focuses on more abstract or mathematical aspects of computing....
in the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
.
Wadler was editor of the Journal of Functional Programming
Journal of Functional Programming
The Journal of Functional Programming is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the design, implementation, and application of functional programming languages, spanning the range from mathematical theory to industrial practice...
from 1990–2004.
He received the Most Influential POPL Paper Award in 2003 for the 1993 POPL
POPL
The annual ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages is an academic conference in the field of computer science, with focus on fundamental principles in the design, definition, analysis, and implementation of programming languages, programming systems, and programming...
Symposium paper Imperative Functional Programming, jointly with Simon Peyton Jones
Simon Peyton Jones
Simon Peyton Jones is a British computer scientist who researches the implementation and applications of functional programming languages, particularly lazy functional languages...
.
In 2005, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh
Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity, operating on a wholly independent and non-party-political basis and providing public benefit throughout Scotland...
.
In 2007, he was inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery
Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009...
.
Wadler is currently working on a new functional language designed for writing web applications, called Links
Links (programming language)
Links is an application programming language for the web that presents an alternative tothe usual tiered architecture.Typical web applications are written using a model that separates functionality that runs...
.
Books
- Richard BirdRichard BirdProf. Richard Simpson Bird is a Supernumerary Fellow of Computation at Lincoln College, Oxford, England, and former director of Oxford University Computing Laboratory....
and Philip Wadler, Introduction to Functional Programming. Prentice HallPrentice HallPrentice Hall is a major educational publisher. It is an imprint of Pearson Education, Inc., based in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, USA. Prentice Hall publishes print and digital content for the 6-12 and higher-education market. Prentice Hall distributes its technical titles through the Safari...
International Series in Computing Science, 1988. ISBN 978-0134841977. 2nd edition, 1998, ISBN 978-0134843469. - M. Naftalin and Philip Wadler, Java Generics and Collections, O'Reilly MediaO'Reilly MediaO'Reilly Media is an American media company established by Tim O'Reilly that publishes books and Web sites and produces conferences on computer technology topics...
, 2006. ISBN 978-0596527754.