Clifford (Cliff) B. Jones

A British computer scientist, Jones was a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng), ACM, BCS, and IET. He specialized in research into formal methods, a particular kind of mathematically based techniques for the specification, development, and verification of software and hardware systems. The use of formal methods for software and hardware design is motivated by the expectation that, as in other engineering disciplines, performing appropriate mathematical analysis can contribute to the reliability and robustness of a design.

From 1965 to 1979 he worked at IBM Hursley, UK, Vienna, and Brussels. During his time in Vienna, Austria, he worked with Dines Bjørner and others on the Vienna Development Method (VDM), one of the longest-established formal methods for the development of computer-based systems. Originating in work done at IBM's Vienna Laboratory in the 1970s, it has grown to include a group of techniques and tools based on a formal specification language — the VDM Specification Language (VDM-SL). It has an extended form, VDM++, which supports the modeling of object-oriented and concurrent systems.

As well as formal methods, Jones also had interests in interdisciplinary aspects of computer science as well as the history of computer science. He undertook a late Doctor of Philosophy degree under Tony Hoare at the Oxford University Computing Laboratory (now the Oxford University Department of Computer Science), which was awarded in 1981. He had no degree when Tony Hoare agreed to supervise his doctorate solely on the basis of his publications.

From Oxford, Jones moved directly to a chair at Manchester University, where he built a world-class Formal Methods group. From 1981 to 1996 he was Professor of Computing Science at the University of Manchester, in England, during which time he held a five-year Senior Fellowship funded by the research council. In 1996 he returned to industry with a small software company (Harlequin), directing some 50 developers on Information Management projects, and eventually became overall Technical Director before leaving to re-join academia in 1999. He then became Professor of Computing Science at Newcastle University in the North-East of England.

He edited, authored, or co-authored numerous books, the most recent of which are: "Reflections on the Work of C.A.R. Hoare", with Roscoe, A.W., and Wood, K. (eds.). Springer. ISBN 978-1-84882-911-4 (2010); "VDM: Une methode rigoureuse pour le development du logiciel", Masson, Paris. ISBN 2-225-82812-1 (1993); "MURAL: A Formal Development Support System", with Jones, K.D., Lindsay, P.A. and Moore, R. (eds.). Springer-Verlag. ISBN 3-540-19651-X (1991); "Systematic Software Development using VDM" (2nd Edition), Prentice Hall International Series in Computer Science, Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-880733-7 (1990); "Case Studies in Systematic Software Development", with Shaw, R.C.F. (eds.). Prentice Hall International Series in Computer Science, Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-116088-5 (1989); and "Essays in Computing Science", with Hoare, C.A.R., Prentice Hall International Series in Computer Science, Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-284027-8 (1989).

In addition, Jones served as Editor-in-Chief of the Formal Aspects of Computing journal. He was a member of IFIP Working Group 2.3 (Programming Methodology) from 1973, serving as Chair from 1987–96. From July 2000 to 2007, he was the Project Director of the five-university Interdisciplinary Research Collaboration on Dependability of Computer-Based Systems.