[SIGCIS-Members] Origin of "Computer Science"

[Martin Campbell-Kelly]

Dear Friends,

Thanks so much for your responses to my query. My conclusion is that one
cannot usefully point to a unique person or place where the term 'computer
science' was coined (unlike John Tukey's invention of "bit" in 1947), but
that it was a widely  accepted usage by 1961. 

Interestingly, the first department with that name in the UK was at
Manchester University in 1965. This confirms my long-held hypothesis that at
that time the UK followed US trends delayed by 3 or 4 years.  

Regards,

Martin 

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Martin Campbell-Kelly, Dept of Computer Science
University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, U.K.
voice: +44 24 7652 3193 fax: +44 24 7657 3024
email: M.Campbell-Kelly at warwick.ac.uk