Brian Oakley

Brian Wynne Oakley, CBE was a British civil servant and industrialist who took a leading role in the area of information technology, especially the 1980s Alvey Programme.

Brian Oakley studied science at University of Oxford.[1] Later he became a Fellow of the Institute of Physics and the British Computer Society. He undertook research in telecommunications and civilian applications of military research. He then worked in Whitehall as a civil servant. Subsequently, he became the chief official of the Science and Engineering Research Council (SERC).

Oakley was director of the United Kingdom Alvey Programme (1983–87), a British government-sponsored research programme for projects in the area of information technology, initiated as a reaction to the Japanese Fifth generation computer project.[2][3] He went on to be Chair of Logica (Cambridge) Ltd. He also chaired the managing board of the Computer Centre of the University of London, an important UK supercomputing centre.

Oakey was president of the British Computer Society (1988–89).[4] He is a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. He also holds honorary doctorates at Sheffield Hallam University (1994)[5] and the University of Essex (1998).[1]

References

  1. ^ a b Honorary Graduates — Brian Wynne Oakley, CBE, University of Essex, UK, 9 July 1998.
  2. ^ Brian Oakley and Kenneth Owen, Alvey: Britain's Strategic Computing Initiative, MIT Press, 1990. ISBN 0-262-15038-7.
  3. ^ Martin Campbell-Kelly, Review of Alvey: Britain's Strategic Computing Initiative, The Business History Review, Vol. 64, No. 3, pages 570–572, Autumn, 1990. JSTOR.
  4. ^ BCS Past Presidents, British Computer Society, UK.
  5. ^ Honorary Awards, Sheffield Hallam University, UK.