Don Syme

{{Short description|Australian computer scientist}}

{{for|the Australian local politician and activist|Don Syme (politician)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Don Syme is an Australian computer scientist and a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research, Cambridge, U.K. He is the designer and architect of the F# programming language, described by a reporter as being regarded as "the most original new face in computer languages since Bjarne Stroustrup developed C++ in the early 1980s."Syme, Don. [http://www.simple-talk.com/opinion/geek-of-the-week/don-syme-geek-of-the-week/ "Interview with Don Syme"], Simple Talk, 19 January 2010.

Earlier, Syme created generics in the .NET Common Language Runtime, including the initial design of generics for the C# programming language, along with others including Andrew KennedyKennedy and Syme, http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=378797 "Design and implementation of generics for the .NET Common language runtime" and later Anders Hejlsberg. Kennedy, Syme and Dachuan Yu also formalized this widely used system.Kennedy, Syme, Yu http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=964005 "Formalization of generics for the .NET common language runtime"

He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge, and is a member of the IFIP working group on functional programming. He is a co-author of the book Expert F# 3.0.Syme, Don et al. [http://www.apress.com/9781430246503 "Expert F# at Apress"], Apress, November 2012.

In the past he also worked on formal specification, interactive proof, automated verification and proof description languages.Syme, Don. [http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/people/dsyme/ "Don Syme at Microsoft Research"], 19 January 2010.

In 2015, he was honored with a Silver Medal from the Royal Academy of Engineering.[http://blogs.technet.com/b/inside_microsoft_research/archive/2015/07/01/microsoft-researcher-don-syme-honored-with-silver-medal-from-royal-academy-of-engineering.aspx "Microsoft researcher Don Syme honored with Silver Medal from Royal Academy of Engineering"].