Hugh Osborne

Biography

After completing my Highers at Aberdeen Grammar School, I went on to study Physics and Maths at Manchester University, graduating in 1977. Shortly thereafter I moved to the Netherlands and, in 1984 decided to return to university to study Computer Science. I obtained my "doctoraal " (approximately equivalent to an MSc) cum laude from the University of Nijmegen in 1989. I then commenced work on my PhD under the supervision of Dr. Hans Meijer and Prof. Kees Koster (one of the authors of the Revised Report on Algol 68). I completed work on my thesis (title: "Update Plans: A High Level Low Level Specification Language ") in 1994, and was awarded my PhD in 1995. By this time I had embarked on a post-doctoral post at the University of York, working on the development of models of case-based reasoning systems. I was appointed a lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Huddersfield in 1997. I continue to be interested in the specification and analysis of computer architecture and structure. I currently teach Computer Structures, Networks, Data Structures, Concurrent Processes and the Implementation of Functional Languages. Outside the University I am interested in photography and astronomy, and enjoy cooking. I am also interested in languages and linguistics. I speak English, French and Dutch, and a smattering of German. I used to speak Russian (badly) but have lost this ability due to lack of practice. I am currently learning Spanish.

Research Interest

My primary interest is in Software Engineering and Formal Specification. In particular I am interested in the development of tools for the specification and analysis of computer architectures and instruction sets.