[SIGCIS-Members] Origin of "Computer Science"

[Roger Johnson]

Dear Martin

I'm afraid you are not right (very rare in my experience!). According to Birkbeck's Annual Report the College's department of Numerical Automation was renamed as the Department of Computer Science at the start of the 1963/4 Academic Session.

Good wishes

Roger Johnson

-----Original Message-----
From: members-bounces at sigcis.org [mailto:members-bounces at sigcis.org] On Behalf Of Martin Campbell-Kelly
Sent: 01 July 2013 15:44
To: members at sigcis.org
Cc: 'David Brailsford'
Subject: Re: [SIGCIS-Members] Origin of "Computer Science"

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 

-
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 




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