| Name K. Tocher Died December 30, 1981 Doctoral students Manny Lehman | Alma mater University of London Books The art of simulation Fields Computer simulation | |
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| Institutions University of Southampton Thesis The design and statistical analysis of experiments (1952) | ||
Institution University of Southampton | ||
Keith Douglas "Toch" Tocher (1921–1981) was a computer scientist known for contributions to computer simulation.
Tocher was born in 1921 and gained a first-class BSc in Mathematics in 1941 from University College London, a BSc in Statistics in 1946 from University of London and a PhD in 1952 part-time at Imperial College London. In 1958 he worked for United Steel Companies under Anthony Stafford Beer, and developed the first discrete-event simulation package, the General Simulation Program (GSP), a program that used a common structure to execute a range of simulations.
He was appointed professor of operational research at the University of Southampton in 1980. He was awarded the silver medal of the Operational Research Society in 1967 and served as president from 1972–73.