David Park (computer scientist)

{{Short description|British computer scientist}}

{{Use British English|date=April 2018}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2021}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = David Park

| image =

| image_size =

| caption =

| birth_date = {{birth-date|1935}}

| birth_place =

| death_date = {{death date and age |1990|09|29 |1935 |df=yes}}

| death_place = Warwick, United Kingdom

| citizenship = United Kingdom

| fields = Mathematics
Computer science

| workplaces = Massachusetts Institute of Technology
University of Cambridge
University of Warwick

| education = University of Oxford
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

| doctoral_advisor = Hartley Rogers Jr.

| doctoral_students = Mike Paterson

| known_for = Lisp
Bisimulation

| awards =

| thesis_title = Set-Theoretic Constructions in Model Theory

| thesis_year = 1964

}}

David Michael Ritchie Park (1935 – 29 September 1990) was a British computer scientist. He worked on the first implementation of the programming language Lisp.{{Citation

|last1=McCarthy |first1=J. |author-link=John McCarthy (computer scientist)

|last2=Brayton |first2=R.

|last3=Edwards |first3=D.

|last4=Fox |first4=P. |author4-link=Phyllis Fox

|last5=Hodes |first5=L. |author5-link=Louis Hodes

|last6=Luckham |first6=D. |author6-link=David Luckham

|last7=Maling |first7=K.

|last8=Park |first8=D.

|last9=Russell |first9=S. |author9-link=Steve Russell (computer scientist)

|title=LISP I Programmers Manual

|place=Boston, Massachusetts

|publisher=Artificial Intelligence Group, M.I.T. Computation Center and Research Laboratory

|date=March 1960

|url=http://history.siam.org/sup/Fox_1960_LISP.pdf

|access-date=11 May 2010}}

He became an authority on the topics of fairness, program schemas and bisimulation in concurrent computing.{{Cite book |last=Paterson |first=Michael |url=https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/82754473.pdf |title=Theoretical Computer Science |location=Oxford |publisher=Elsevier |pages=187–200 |date=1994 |chapter=David Michael Ritchie Park (1935–1990) in memoriam |volume=133 |number=2 |issn=0304-3975}}{{Cite journal |title=Obituary: Professor David Michael Ritchie Park |last=Paterson |first=M.S. |journal=Formal Aspects of Computing |publisher=Springer |location=London |issn=0934-5043 |volume=2 |number=1 |date=March 1990 |doi=10.1007/BF01888230 |pages=299–300 |s2cid=13190797 |url=http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=h702p66m6534002l&size=largest |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110714081243/http://resources.metapress.com/pdf-preview.axd?code=h702p66m6534002l&size=largest |archive-date=14 July 2011|doi-access=free }} At the University of Warwick, he was one of the earliest members of the computer science department, and served as chairperson.