Roland Carl Backhouse (born on 18 August 1948) is a British computer scientist and mathematician who is currently Professor of Computing Science at the University of Nottingham.
Early Life and Education
Backhouse was born and raised on one of the poorest housing estates in England, the Thorntree district of Middlesbrough, an industrial town in the north-east of England. In 1959 he won a place at Acklam Hall Grammar School (a school that has since lost its existence under an updated education scheme) before going on to Churchill College, Cambridge, in 1966. His doctorate was completed under the supervision of Jim Cunningham at Imperial College London.
Backhouse's career has included Royal Aircraft Establishment (1969–1970), Heriot-Watt University (1973–1982), University of Essex (1982–1986). He was formerly Professor of Computer Science at the University of Groningen (1986–90) and Eindhoven University of Technology (1990–1999) in the Netherlands, prior to his current position at the University of Nottingham.
Backhouse is married to Hilary (née Mitchell) and they have three sons, Kevin, Andrew and David.
His research interests lie in the mathematics of program construction and algorithmic problem solving. Together with Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut (1953—1994), he began the biennial series of conferences on the Mathematics of Program Construction, the first of which was held in 1989.
Backhouse, Roland (2011). Algorithmic problem solving. Chichester: Wiley. ISBN 978-0-470-68453-5. Backhouse, Roland (2003). Program construction: calculating implementations from specifications. Chichester: Wiley. ISBN 978-0-470-84882-1. Backhouse, Roland (1986). Program construction and verification. Englewood Cliffs N.J.: Prentice-Hall International. ISBN 978-0-13-729153-3. Backhouse, Roland (1979). Syntax of programming languages. Prentice-Hall International series in computer science. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall International. ISBN 978-0-13-879999-1. Backhouse, Roland; Gibbons, Jeremy; Hinze, Ralph; Jeuring, Johan (2007). Datatype-generic programming: international spring school, SSDGP 2006, Nottingham, UK 24–27 April 2006, revised lectures. International Spring School on Datatype-Generic Programming. Berlin: Springer. ISBN 978-3-540-76785-5. Backhouse, Roland; Gibbons, Jeremy (2003). Generic programming: advanced lectures [lectures presented at a Summer School on Generic Programming held at the University of Oxford in August 2002]. Summer School on Generic Programming. Berlin: Springer. ISBN 978-3-540-20194-6. Backhouse, Roland; Crole, Roy L.; Gibbons, Jeremy (2002). Algebraic and coalgebraic methods in the mathematics of program construction: international summer school and workshop Oxford, UK, 10–14 April 2000, revised lectures. Berlin; New York: Springer. ISBN 978-3-540-43613-3. Backhouse, Roland; Oliveira, Jose N. (2000). Mathematics of Program Construction 2000. Berlin; New York: Springer. ISBN 3-540-67727-5. Backhouse, RC; Carre, BA (1975). "Regular algebra applied to path-finding problems". Journal of the institute of mathematics and its applications. 15 (2): 161–186. doi:10.1093/imamat/15.2.161. Backhouse, R; Jansson, P; Jeuring, J; et al. (1999). "Generic programming – An introduction" [Conference Information: 3rd International School on Advanced Functional Programming (AFP 98),12–19 September 1998 Braga Portugal]. Advanced functional programming. 1608: 28–115. doi:10.1007/10704973_2. Doornbos, H; Backhouse, R; vanderWoude, J (June 1997). "A calculational approach to mathematical induction". Theoretical computer science. 179 (1–2): 103–135. doi:10.1016/s0304-3975(96)00154-5. Backhouse, R (2002). "Galois connections and fixed point calculus" [Conference Information: International Summer School and Workshop on Algebraic and Coalgebraic Methods in the Mathematics of Program Construction, Date: 10–14 April 2000 University of Oxford, Oxford, England]. Algebraic and Coalgebraic Methods in the Mathematics of Program Construction. 2297: 89–148. doi:10.1007/3-540-47797-7_4. Doornbos, H; Backhouse, R (1996). "Reductivity" [Conference Information: 3rd International Conference on the Mathematics of Program Construction, Date: 17-21 July 1995 Kloster Irsee Germany]. Science of Computer Programming. 26 (1–3): 217–236. doi:10.1016/0167-6423(95)00027-5. 
