Jack Cole (scientist)
computer scientist
Alfred Jack Cole (1925 – May 30, 1997) was a professor at the School of Computer Science, University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He is credited with building on the establishing of the School of Computer Science at St Andrews.
Career
Cole studied mathematics at University College London, completing his PhD on the theory of numbers in 1952. He then worked as a lecturer at Heriot-Watt College in Edinburgh until 1956, when he moved to Queen's College, Dundee. His interest in the potential of computer technology resulted in a move to University of Leicester in 1962, as Director of the Computing Laboratory. In 1965 he returned to Scotland and St Andrews, as Director of the Computing Laboratory and Reader in Computational Science.
From 1965 Cole devoted his next twenty years to establishing computer science at St Andrews. His innovative approach included pioneering the teaching of Information Technology to Arts students. He developed techniques for space-filling curves to be used in video compression, leading to his invention of murray polygons.
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Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6111739. VIAF identifies the subject as 60617353. The Library of Congress control number is n87938167. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1925, 1997, 1952 and 1956.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jack Cole (scientist)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.