Rosemary Candlin

Rosemary Candlin (born 1927) is a computer scientist who joined the University of Edinburgh Computer Science Department shortly after it was first established, and for some time was the only woman lecturer on the staff. She worked there from 1968 to 1995, helped design the curriculum in its early years, and developed a specialist interest in parallel programming. She then went on to work for CERN: the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

Career

Candlin studied physics as an undergraduate at Cambridge and stayed there for her PhD in crystallography. She had a succession of jobs in crystallography: at the Natural History Museum, London, at Princeton, then back at Cambridge as a research assistant to Helen Megaw.[1]

She moved to Edinburgh and continued working in crystallography there, using a distant Atlas computer linked to the university by a telephone line.[1] Next she joined the Edinburgh computer science department recently established by Professor Sidney Michaelson who wanted her to teach first-year students how to program.[1] To begin with there were no other permanent women lecturers. Candlin moved on to teach more advanced students, designed courses on real-time programming, and also on parallel programming which became her speciality.[1]

After leaving Edinburgh University in 1995 she worked on physics software for CERN. This work involved Atlas software.[2]

Personal life

Candlin was born Rosemary Shaw in Plymouth in 1927, the only child of Eileen Shaw and Instructor Captain Robert Edward Shaw CBE ADC RN.[3] Because of the Second World War the family had to move house several times and Candlin's schooling was disrupted. She finished her secondary education in Liverpool.[1] In 1955 she married the physicist David Candlin.[3] They have four children.

Publications

Some articles co-authored. List not complete.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 IEEE History Center interview with Janet Abbate
  2. ATLAS Offline Computing Review
  3. 1 2 The Times, 6 Sep, 1955, p1
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