Brian Cantwell Smith

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Brian Cantwell Smith
Alma mater
Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, Stanford University
ThesisProcedural Reflection in Programming Languages (vol. 1) (1982)
Doctoral advisorPeter Szolovits

Brian Cantwell Smith is a philosopher and cognitive scientist working in the fields of

information studies, and philosophy, especially ontology
.

His research has focused on the foundations and philosophy of computing, both in the practice and theory of computer science, and in the use of computational metaphors in other fields, such as philosophy, cognitive science, physics, and art. He is currently professor of information, computer science, and philosophy at University of Toronto.

Career

Smith received his BS, MS and PhD degrees from the

knowledge representation. Over the last decade, his work has focused on fundamental issues in the foundations of epistemology, ontology, and metaphysics
.

He was a founder of the

Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
, in the 1980s.

Smith is the author of more than 35 articles and three books,[citation needed]. One of his books is called On the Origin of Objects, MIT Press, 1996. He had promised for several years that he is about to publish a seven-volume series entitled The Age of Significance: An Essay on the Origins of Computation and Intentionality but so far only a forty-three page introduction has been released.

Smith was Dean of the University of Toronto Faculty of Information from 2003โ€“2008.

Smith previously held a Canada Research Chair in the Foundations of Information, and is cross-appointed as Professor in the departments of Philosophy and Computer Science and in the Program in Communication, Culture and Technology at University of Toronto at Mississauga.

Personal life

His father was the celebrated scholar of religion Wilfred Cantwell Smith.

External links

References

Academic offices
Preceded by
Lynne Howarth
Dean of University of Toronto Faculty of Information
2003 โ€“ 2008
Succeeded by
Jens-Erik Mai (Acting)