Gordon Foster
F. Gordon Foster | |
---|---|
Born | United Kingdom | 24 February 1921
Died | 20 December 2010 | (aged 89)
Nationality | Irish |
Known for | Foster's theorem |
Scientific career | |
Doctoral advisor | David George Kendall |
Frederic Gordon Foster (24 February 1921 – 20 December 2010)
Life
Foster was born in Belfast, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, between the 1920 enactment and 1921 implementation of the partition of Ireland. He studied at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and began advanced study in mathematics at Queen's University Belfast. During World War II, he was recruited from Queen's by MI6 to work as a code-breaker at Bletchley Park.
After the war, he resumed studies at Magdalen College, Oxford. A lecture on feedback control by Norbert Wiener, regarded as the originator of cybernetics, proved to be a great influence on Foster's research. Upon completing his
Most noteworthy, in 1965 while at the LSE, Gordon Foster was commissioned by WH Smith, the book publisher and bookseller, to develop a computerised filing system as part of the publisher's drive to modernise its growing company. Gordon Foster developed for WH Smith, a 9 digit code which he named the Standard Book Numbering System (SBN). This code was very successful and was rapidly adopted by all UK publishers and booksellers. In 1970, the International Standard Organisation (ISO) expanded the SBN to 10 digits by adding an initial zero and the code was renamed to become the International Book Numbering System: ISBN.[citation needed]
The ISBN was born, and is now used worldwide by all publishers and booksellers.[2][3]
In 1967, Gordon Foster was asked by Trinity College Dublin to start a Department of Statistics, and became professor of statistics at
Foster died in Dublin, 20 December 2010.[1]
See also
References
- ^ (PDF) from the original on 26 August 2016. Retrieved 3 May 2013 – via johnl.org.
- ^ "ISBN - International Standard Book Number". MobilioDevelopment. Archived from the original on 20 September 2020. Retrieved 18 December 2021.
- ^ "History". ISBN.org. Archived from the original on 12 August 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2021.