For the founder of the Order of DeMolay

DeMolay International

DeMolay International , founded in Kansas City, Missouri in 1919, is an international organization for young men ages 12–21. DeMolay derives its name from Jacques DeMolay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar...

, see Frank S. Land

Frank S. Land

Frank Sherman "Dad" Land was the Founder of the Order of DeMolay. A business and community leader in Kansas City, Land served as Imperial Potentate of the Shriners and is revered today as the Founder of the Order of DeMolay.-Biography:Land was born in Kansas, City, Missouri, and gained a...

Frank F Land FBCS

FBCS

FBCS is an abbreviation for Fellow of the British Computer Society . This is the most senior professional grade in the BCS. It is available to applicants with a minimum of five years of Information Technology experience in a senior IT position or who have an established eminent or authoritative...

is an information systems

Information systems

Information Systems is an academic/professional discipline bridging the business field and the well-defined computer science field that is evolving toward a new scientific area of study...

 researcher and was the first UK Professor of Information Systems. He is currently emeritus professor in the Department of Information Systems at the London School of Economics

London School of Economics

The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...

 (LSE).

His wife is the operations research

Operations research

Operations research is an interdisciplinary mathematical science that focuses on the effective use of technology by organizations...

er Professor Ailsa Land.

After graduating in Economics

Economics

Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...

 from the LSE in 1950, Land joined the London food and catering enterprise J. Lyons, working on the first electronic computer designed for business use, the LEO I

Leo I

- People :* Pope Leo I , also known as Pope Saint Leo the Great* Leo I the Thracian, 5th century Byzantine Emperor* Leo I, Prince of Armenia - People :* Pope Leo I (400–461), also known as Pope Saint Leo the Great* Leo I the Thracian, 5th century Byzantine Emperor* Leo I, Prince of Armenia -...

.

In 1967 Land was selected for a newly established post in what later became the Department of Information Systems at LSE. Here he became involved with the development and definition of the subject and its curriculum. He chaired working parties for the British Computer Society

British Computer Society

The British Computer Society, is a professional body and a learned society that represents those working in Information Technology in the United Kingdom and internationally...

, the National Computing Centre

National Computing Centre

The National Computing Centre was an independent not-for-profit membership and research organisation that went in to administartion before being liquidated in 2010...

 and the Council for National Academic Awards

Council for National Academic Awards

The Council for National Academic Awards was a degree awarding authority in the United Kingdom from 1965 until 1992. The CNAA awarded academic degrees at polytechnics, Central Institutions and other non-university institutions such as Colleges of Higher Education until they were awarded university...

 concerned with curriculum development. He worked with an international group to establish the International Federation for Information Processing

International Federation for Information Processing

The International Federation for Information Processing is an umbrella organization for national societies working in the field of information technology. It is a non-governmental, non-profit organization with offices in Laxenburg, Austria...

's (IFIP) curriculum for information systems designers. At the LSE he set up the ADMIS (Analysis, Design and Management of Information Systems) Masters course and developed a Ph.D. program.

In 1982 Land was appointed as the UK's first professor of Information Systems. In 1986 he moved to the London Business School

London Business School

London Business School is an international business school and a constituent college of the federal University of London, located in central London, beside Regent's Park...

 as Professor of Information Management. He has served as Visiting Professor at the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

 (the Wharton School), Sydney University, Bond University

Bond University

Bond University is a private university located in Robina, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia. It is also the first private university established in Australia...

, Curtin University, and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad , better known as IIM Ahmedabad or simply IIM-A, is a business school located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. It is the second Indian Institute of Management to be established, in 1961.-History:...

 (IIMA).

He has been awarded an honorary doctorate in science and the IFIP award for distinguished service. He has served as technical advisor to House of Commons

British House of Commons

The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...

 Select Committees examining IT in the UK.

Land retired from full time academic work in 1992 and is currently Visiting Professor of Information Management at the LSE and at Leeds Metropolitan University

Leeds Metropolitan University

Leeds Metropolitan University is a British University with three campuses. Two are situated in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England while the third is situated in Bhopal, India...

.

In 2003 Land was jointly awarded the Association for Information Systems

Association for Information Systems

The Association for Information Systems is an international professional organization serving as the premier global organization for academics specializing in Information Systems...

' LEO Award with Dr Jack F Rockart of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

, for lifetime exceptional achievement. The award recognised seminal contributions to research, theory development, and practice in Information Systems.

Selected bibliography

• "Systems Analysis for Business Applications", Resurrection, Summer issue 1996.
• "LEO, the First Business Computer: A Personal Experience". In Glass, R.L.
  Robert L. Glass
  Robert L. Glass is an American software engineer and pioneer of the software field, currently serving as a visiting professor at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia.- Biography :...
  
  , editor. In the Beginning: Recollections of Software Pioneers, pages 134–153. IEEE Computer Society
  IEEE Computer Society
  The IEEE Computer Society is a professional society of IEEE. Its purpose and scope is “to advance the theory, practice, and application of computer and information processing science and technology” and the “professional standing of its members.” The CS is the largest of 38 technical societies...
  
  , Los Alamitos, CA, 1997.
• "A historical analysis of implementing IS at J. Lyons." In Rethinking management information systems. Edited by Currie, W. L.; Galliers, R. D. Oxford University Press
  Oxford University Press
  Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
  
  , pp. 310-325, ISBN 0-198775334, 1999.
• "From IT application to organisational transformation", Journal of Systems and Software 40, no., pp. 183-184, 1999.
• "A Historical Analysis of Implementing IS at J. Lyons." In Currie, W.G.; Galliers, R.D., editors. Rethinking Management Information Systems, pp. 310–325. Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-471986925, 1999.
• "The first business computer: A case study in user-driven innovation", IEEE Annals of the History of Computing 22, no. 4, pp. 16-26, 2000.
• "The darker side of knowledge management", The Software Practitioner 14, no. 5, 2004.
• "Leo II and the Model T Ford", Computer Journal 49, no. 6, pp. 650-656, 2006.

External links

• Professor Emeritus Frank Land
• Listen to an oral history interview with Frank Land - a life story interview recorded for An Oral History of British Science at the British Library