Daniel Jackson (computer scientist)
{{EngvarB|date=December 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2017}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Daniel Jackson
| image = Daniel Jackson MIT (crop) 01.jpg
| occupation = Computer scientist
| work_institution = Massachusetts Institute of Technology
| alma_mater = {{Plainlist|
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (PhD)
- University of Oxford (M.A.)}}
| doctoral_advisor = John Guttag
| known_for = Lightweight formal methods, and the Alloy specification language
}}
Daniel Jackson (born 1963) is a professor of computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is the principal designer of the Alloy modelling language, and author of the books Software Abstractions: Logic, Language, and Analysis{{cite book |last1=Jackson |first1=Daniel |title=Software Abstractions: Logic, Language, and Analysis |publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge, MA |date=April 2006 |isbn=978-0-262-10114-1 |url=http://www.softwareabstractions.org/ |access-date=10 January 2009}} and The Essence of Software.{{cite book |last1=Jackson |first1=Daniel |title=The Essence of Software |publisher=Princeton University Press |date=November 2021 |isbn=978-0-691-225-388 |url=https://essenceofsoftware.com/ |access-date=22 March 2024}} He leads the Software Design Group at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
Biography
Jackson was born in London, England, in 1963.{{cite web|url=http://straightphotography.org/articles/bio.html|title=DANIEL JACKSON|last=Jackson|first=Daniel|work=Straight Photography by Daniel Jackson|access-date=9 January 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071113203657/http://straightphotography.org/articles/bio.html|archive-date=13 November 2007|url-status=usurped}}
He studied physics at the University of Oxford, receiving an MA in 1984. After completing his MA, Jackson worked for two years as a software engineer at Logica UK Ltd. He then returned to academia to study computer science at MIT, where he received an SM in 1988, and a PhD in 1992. Following the completion of his doctorate Jackson took up a position as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, which he held until 1997.{{cite web|url=http://sdg.csail.mit.edu/people/dnj.html|title=Prof. Daniel Jackson|work=CSAIL Software Design Group|access-date=9 January 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120809040239/http://sdg.csail.mit.edu/people/dnj.html|archive-date=9 August 2012|url-status=dead}} He has been on the faculty of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT since 1997.
In 2017 he became a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.{{citation|title=ACM Recognizes New Fellows|journal=Communications of the ACM|date=March 2017|volume=60|issue=3|page=23|doi=10.1145/3039921|last1=Cacm Staff|s2cid=31701275}}. In the same year, he was awarded the ACM SIGSOFT Outstanding Research Award.{{cite web |url=https://www.sigsoft.org/awards/outstandingResearchAward.html |title=Outstanding Research Award |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |accessdate=7 April 2024}}
Jackson is also a photographer, and has an interest in the straight photography style. The MIT Museum commissioned a series of photographs of MIT laboratories from him, displayed from May to December 2012, to accompany an exhibit of images by Berenice Abbott.
Jackson is the son of software engineering researcher Michael A. Jackson,{{cite web|url=http://people.csail.mit.edu/dnj/|title=Daniel Jackson|last=Jackson|first=Daniel|work=CSAIL Faculty Pages|access-date=9 January 2009}} developer of Jackson Structured Programming (JSP), Jackson System Development (JSD), and the Problem Frames Approach.
Research
Jackson's research is broadly concerned with improving the dependability of software. He is a proponent of lightweight formal methods.{{cite journal
|last1=Jackson |first1=Daniel
|last2=Wing |first2=Jeannette |author2-link=Jeannette Wing
|title=An Invitation to Formal Methods : Lightweight Formal Methods
|editor1-last=Saiedian |editor1-first=Hossein
|journal=IEEE Computer
|volume=29
|issue=4
|pages=16
|date=April 1996
|doi=10.1109/MC.1996.488298
|s2cid=15230509
|url=http://people.csail.mit.edu/dnj/publications/ieee96-roundtable.html
}} Jackson and his students developed the Alloy language and its associated Alloy Analyzer analysis tool to provide support for lightweight specification and modelling efforts.{{cite journal
|last1=Jackson |first=Daniel
|title=Alloy: A Lightweight Object Modelling Notation
|journal=ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology
|volume=11
|issue=2
|date=April 2002
|pages=256–290
|doi=10.1145/505145.505149
|url=http://people.csail.mit.edu/dnj/publications/alloy-journal.pdf
|citeseerx=10.1.1.12.4127
|s2cid=5683166
}}
Between 2004 and 2007, Jackson chaired a multi-year United States National Research Council study on dependable systems.{{cite web|url=http://sites.nationalacademies.org/cstb/CompletedProjects/CSTB_042247|title=Sufficient Evidence? Building Certifiably Dependable Systems|work=Computer Science and Telecommunications Board|publisher=The National Academies|access-date=9 January 2009|archive-date=27 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190427080548/http://sites.nationalacademies.org/cstb/CompletedProjects/CSTB_042247|url-status=dead}}
Selected publications
- {{cite book
|editor1-last=Jackson |editor1-first=Daniel
|editor2-last=Thomas |editor2-first=Martyn |editor2-link=Martyn Thomas
|editor3-last=Millett |editor3-first=Lynette I.
|title=Software for Dependable Systems: Sufficient Evidence?
|publisher=The National Academies Press |location=Washington, DC
|date=May 2007
|doi=10.17226/11923
|isbn=978-0-309-10394-7
|url=http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11923
}}
- {{cite book
|last=Jackson |first=Daniel
|title=Software Abstractions: Logic, Language, and Analysis
|publisher=MIT Press |location=Cambridge, MA
|date=April 2006
|isbn=978-0-262-10114-1
|url=http://www.softwareabstractions.org/ |access-date=10 January 2009
}}
- {{cite journal
|last1=Jackson |first1=Daniel
|title=Dependable Software by Design
|journal=Scientific American
|date=June 2006
|volume=294
|issue=6
|pages=68–75
|doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0606-68
|pmid=16711362
|bibcode=2006SciAm.294f..68J
|url=http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=dependable-software-by-de
}}
- {{cite journal
|last1=Jackson |first=Daniel
|title=Alloy: A Lightweight Object Modelling Notation
|journal=ACM Transactions on Software Engineering and Methodology
|volume=11
|issue=2
|date=April 2002
|pages=256–290
|doi=10.1145/505145.505149
|url=http://people.csail.mit.edu/dnj/publications/alloy-journal.pdf
|citeseerx=10.1.1.12.4127
|s2cid=5683166
}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://people.csail.mit.edu/dnj/ Daniel Jackson MIT home page]
- {{usurped|1=[https://archive.today/20130416000359/http://straightphotography.org/ Daniel Jackson photography website]}}
- {{DBLP|name=Daniel Jackson}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Daniel}}
Category:Photographers from London
Category:Alumni of the University of Oxford
Category:British computer programmers
Category:British expatriate academics in the United States
Category:MIT School of Engineering alumni
Category:Carnegie Mellon University faculty
Category:MIT School of Engineering faculty
Category:English computer scientists
Category:Formal methods people
Category:Software engineering researchers
Category:Computer science writers