Contributions To The Development of Computing
While Professor of Natural Philosophy at Aberdeen University, Carroll had been interested in acquiring desk computing machines for his students. These greatly reduced the labour in producing the mathematical tables needed in astronomy and other fields, including gunnery. In 1942 he became assistant director of research at the Scientific Research and Experiment Department, an Admiralty body which coordinated naval research departments. With Donald Sadler and John Todd, he formed the Admiralty Computing Service in 1943, which itself formed the basis for the NPL Mathematics Division when the Second World War ended in 1945. The NPL Maths Division offered a practical computing service and was also a centre of research into electronic computing and numerical analysis. From 1964 to 68 Carroll was professor of astronomy at Gresham College, London. By this time he had been knighted and was Sir John Carroll.
Read more about this topic: John Carroll (astronomer)
Famous quotes containing the words contributions to and/or development:
“The vast material displacements the machine has made in our physical environment are perhaps in the long run less important than its spiritual contributions to our culture.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)
“Ultimately, it is the receiving of the child and hearing what he or she has to say that develops the child’s mind and personhood.... Parents who enter into a dialogue with their children, who draw out and respect their opinions, are more likely to have children whose intellectual and ethical development proceeds rapidly and surely.”
—Mary Field Belenky (20th century)