James Anderson (computer Scientist)

James Anderson (computer Scientist)

James Anderson is an academic staff member in the School of Systems Engineering at the University of Reading, England. He is currently teaching compilers, algorithms, and computer algebra, and in the past he has taught programming and computer graphics.

Anderson quickly gained publicity in December 2006 in the United Kingdom when the regional BBC South Today reported his claim of "having solved a 1200 year old problem", namely that of division by zero. However, commentators quickly pointed out that his ideas are just a variation of the standard IEEE 754 concept of NaN (Not a Number), a datum that has been commonly employed on computers in floating point arithmetic for many years. Dr Anderson defended against the criticism of his claims on BBC Berkshire on 12 December 2006, saying, "If anyone doubts me I can hit them over the head with a computer that does it."