Brian Jack Copeland (born 1950) is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, and author of books on the computing pioneer Alan Turing.[ Alan Turing: Father of the Modern Computer]
Education
Copeland was educated at the University of Oxford, obtaining a Bachelor of Philosophy degree and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1978,
where he undertook research on
modal logic and non-classical logic supervised by
Dana Scott.
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Career and research
Jack Copeland is the Director of the Turing Archive for the History of Computing,
Copeland has held visiting professorships at the University of Sydney, Australia (1997, 2002), the University of Aarhus, Denmark (1999), the University of Melbourne, Australia (2002, 2003), and the University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom (1997–2005). In 2000, he was a Senior Fellow in the Dibner Institute for the History of Science and Technology
Copeland is also President of the US Society for Machines and Mentality[ Society for Machines and Mentality , USA.] and a member of the UK Bletchley Park Trust Heritage Advisory Panel. He is the founding editor of The Rutherford Journal, established in 2005.
Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot suggested the establishment of a Turing Center in Zurich during a guest stay at ETH Zurich in 2012. The idea was implemented and ETH Zurich was able to open the Turing Center Zurich in 2015. It is operational organizes regular conferences on questions related to computer, artificial intelligence and other.
The Rutherford Journal
Copeland serves as editor-in-chief of The Rutherford Journal, an open-access Peer review online academic journal published in New Zealand[ About the Journal, The Rutherford Journal.]
The journal is indexed in various index lists.
Publications
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Artificial Intelligence: A Philosophical Introduction (Blackwell, 1993, 2nd edition due)
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Logic and Reality Essays on the Legacy of Arthur Prior (Oxford University Press, 1996)
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The Essential Turing (Oxford University Press, 2004) (pbk); (hbk)
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Alan Turing’s Automatic Computing Engine: The Master Codebreaker's Struggle to Build the Modern Computer (Oxford University Press, 2005)
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Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park's Codebreaking Computers (Oxford University Press, 2006)
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Alan Turing’s Electronic Brain: The Struggle to Build the ACE, the World’s Fastest Computer (Oxford University Press, 2012)
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Computability: Turing, Gödel, Alonzo Church, and Beyond (MIT Press, 2013). (with Carl Posy and Oron Shagrir)
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Turing: Pioneer of the Information Age (Oxford University Press, 2014: Paperback edition)
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The Turing Guide (Oxford University Press, 2017) (hardcover), (paperback)
Awards and honours
Copeland was awarded Lecturer of the Year 2010 by the University of Canterbury's student union.
