James G. Mitchell

Infobox Scientist


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name = James George Mitchell
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birth_date = 1943
birth_place = Kitchener, Ontario
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nationality = Canadian
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field = Computer Science
work_institutions = Sun Microsystems, Acorn Computers, Xerox
alma_mater = University of Waterloo, Carnegie Mellon University
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known_for = WATFOR compiler, Mesa programming language
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prizes = J.W. Graham Medal in Computing and Innovation
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James "Jim" Mitchell Ph.D.(born 25 April, 1943), is a Canadian computer scientist. He has worked on programming language design & implementation (FORTRAN, Mesa, Euclid, C++, Java), interactive programming systems, dynamic interpretation & compilation, document preparation systems, user interface design, distributed transactional file systems, and distributed, object-oriented operating systems. He has also worked on the design of hardware for computer graphics, high-level language execution, and audio input output. [http://www.sun.com/2002-0625/feature/jmitchell.html Feature Story: Interview with Jim Mitchell] ]

Biography

Mitchell was born in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. He attended the University of Waterloo and has a Ph.D. from Carnegie-Mellon University.

Career

Mitchell began working with computers in 1962 while a student at the University of Waterloo where he and three other undergraduates developed the first WATFOR compiler, a fast FORTRAN compiler for the IBM System/360 family of computers. The /360 WATFOR project was initiated by Professor J. Wesley Graham, following the successful implementation in 1965 of a WATFOR compiler for the IBM 7040 computer. An enhanced version of the /360 WATFOR compiler was called WATFIV, variously interpreted to mean "WATerloo Fortran IV" or "WATFOR-plus-one". WATFOR and WATFIV made FORTRAN programming accessible not only to university students and researchers but to high schoolers as well, and largely established Waterloo's early reputation as a centre for software and Computer Science research.

From 1971-84 Mitchell was at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and was a Xerox Fellow. In 1980-81 he was Senior Visiting Fellow at the Cambridge University Computing Laboratory. He was head of research and development for Acorn Computers (U.K.), where the ARM RISC chip was designed, and President of the Acorn Research Center in Palo Alto, California.

Mitchell joined Sun Microsystems in 1988 and was in charge of the Spring distributed, object-oriented operating system research in Sun Microsystems Laboratories and SunSoft, Inc. He became Vice President of Technology & Architecture in the JavaSoft Division and then Chief Technology Officer, Java Consumer & Embedded products. Later, he was Vice President in charge of Sun Microsystems Laboratories. He is currently a Sun Fellow and Vice President of Sun's High Productivity Computing Systems Research project under contract with DARPA. [ [http://research.sun.com/people/jamesg/ Sun Research Home Biography] ]

Honors

In 1997, he was awarded the J.W. Graham Medal in Computing and Innovation from the University of Waterloo. [ [http://infranet.uwaterloo.ca/infranet/s199705.htm J.W. Graham Medal and Lecture Announcement] ]

ee also

*Sun Microsystems
*Xerox PARC
*Sun Fellow
*Java (programming language)
*Mesa (programming language)
*Acorn Computers
*Olivetti

Notes and references

Persondata
NAME = Mitchell, James G
ALTERNATIVE NAMES = Mitchell, Jim
SHORT DESCRIPTION = Canadian computer scientist
DATE OF BIRTH = 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH = Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
DATE OF DEATH =
PLACE OF DEATH =