Martyn Thomas CBE FREng 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...

 FIET FRSA (born 1948) is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 independent consultant and software engineer

Software engineer

A software engineer is an engineer who applies the principles of software engineering to the design, development, testing, and evaluation of the software and systems that make computers or anything containing software, such as computer chips, work.- Overview :...

. He founded the software engineering company Praxis

Praxis High Integrity Systems

Altran Praxis is a British software house that specialises in critical systems...

 in 1983, based in Bath, southern England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. He has a special interest in safety-critical systems and other high integrity applications. He has acted as an expert witness

Expert witness

An expert witness, professional witness or judicial expert is a witness, who by virtue of education, training, skill, or experience, is believed to have expertise and specialised knowledge in a particular subject beyond that of the average person, sufficient that others may officially and legally...

 involving complex software engineering issues.

Thomas was born in Salisbury

Salisbury

Salisbury is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England and the only city in the county. It is the second largest settlement in the county...

, England. He studied biochemistry

Biochemistry

Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...

 at University College London

University College London

University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...

, graduating in 1969, when he started working in the field of computing. Between 1969 and 1983, he was employed at universities in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 and the Netherlands

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

, at STC

Standard Telephones and Cables

Standard Telephones and Cables Ltd was a British telephone, telegraph, radio, telecommunications and related equipment R&D manufacturer. During its history STC invented and developed several groundbreaking new technologies including PCM and optical fibres.The company began life in London as...

 working on telecommunications software, and at the South West Universities Regional Computer Centre in Bath.

In 1983, Thomas founded Praxis with David Bean, where he encouraged the use of formal methods

Formal methods

In computer science and software engineering, formal methods are a particular kind of mathematically-based techniques for the specification, development and verification of software and hardware systems...

 within the company for software development

Software development

Software development is the development of a software product...

. In December 1992, Praxis was sold to Deloitte and Touche and Thomas became a partner of that company. He left the company in 1998.

He is currently director of Martyn Thomas Associates Limited and a visiting professor at the Oxford University Computing Laboratory

Oxford University Computing Laboratory

The Department of Computer Science, until 2011 named the Computing Laboratory , is a department of Oxford University in England...

, and the University of Bristol

University of Bristol

The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...

. He lives in Bath.

External links

• Martyn Thomas Associates Limited website
• Martyn Thomas biography from the IET
  Institution of Engineering and Technology
  The Institution of Engineering and Technology is a British professional body for those working in engineering and technology in the United Kingdom and worldwide. It was formed in 2006 from two separate institutions: the Institution of Electrical Engineers , dating back to 1871, and the...
  
  
• Oxford University Computing Laboratory home page