Simon Thompson is a research computer scientist, author, and an emeritus professor of the University of Kent, specializing in logic and computation. His research into functional programming covers software verification and validation, programming tool-building, and software testing for the functional programming languages Erlang, Haskell, and OCaml. He is the author of books on data type theory, Miranda, Haskell, and Erlang, and runs a massive open online course about Erlang for FutureLearn.
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Education
Thompson earned a Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil.) from the University of Oxford in 1984 with a dissertation titled "Recursion theories on the continuous functionals". Thompson's doctoral adviser was Robin Oliver Gandy.
Work
As of 2025, he worked for Input Output Global, Input Output Hong Kong on domain-specific languages for the Cardano blockchain platform. There, he developed a specialised smart contract language, Marlowe, designed for non-programmers working in the financial sector. His most recent articles have been related to Core Erlang.
Books
His books include:
Thompson, Simon (January 1991 – March 1999). Type Theory and Functional Programming. International Computer Science Series. Addison-Wesley; Computing Laboratory, University of Kent. ISBN 979-8482847145.
Thompson, Simon (21 July 1995). Miranda: The Craft of Functional Programming. International Computer Science Series. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 978-0201422795.
Thompson, Simon (1996–2011). Haskell: The Craft of Functional Programming. International Computer Science Series (3rd ed.). Addison-Wesley, Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0201882957.
Cesarini, Francesco; Thompson, Simon (28 July 2009). Erlang Programming: A Concurrent Approach to Software Development. O'Reilly Media. ISBN 978-0596518189. Quotes, Francesco Cesarini, founder: Erlang Solutions Ltd.