Professor
Christopher Wallace
Professor
Christopher Wallace is often
considered to have been the greatest and most influential thinker in
computer science in Australia.
Born on 26 October 1933,
Professor Wallace led a distinguished academic career with pioneering achievements
in many fields of computer science. He entered
computer science from nuclear physics and for
his PhD degree developed a complex computer program for
analysis of cosmic ray events on SILLIAC, Sydney University’s
first computer, one of the first three
computers to be built in Australia.
Professor
Wallace was appointed Foundation Professor of Computer
Science, initially called Information Science, at Monash University
at the age of
35. The Monash computer science department
under his leadership produced about half of the PhD
computing graduates in Australia during
the early years, a significant number of whom Professor
Wallace supervised.
Professor
of computer science at Monash, Professor Gopal Gupta,
was one of the early PhD students and colleague of Professor Wallace.
“At the professional level,
Professor Wallace had a towering intellect,
encyclopaedic knowledge and uncompromising commitment
to research,” said Professor Gupta.
<>“At
the personal level, his ethics and belief in altruism and the
goodness of people permeated his interactions with his colleagues and
work associates. As a
teacher, he mentored many staff and students,
most of whom are now leaders in academia and industry.
His knowledge was impressive, and
despite his modest claims to the contrary, spanned many fields
of endeavour."
“His
passing leaves a large void in the field of computer science
both in Australia
and abroad, but most of all, for those who had the privilege of knowing
him.
This
CORE award is a tribute to the work that was undertaken by Professor
Wallace and the inspiriation that he has provided future generations of
Computer Scientists.
* Photograph courtesy of Monash University