http://www.cis.udel.edu/~caviness/jenks/jenksbio/
Richard Dimick Jenks
Axiom Developer and Computer Algebra Pioneer
Biographical Information
Richard D. Jenks was born on November 16, 1937 in Dixon, Illinois,
where he grew up. During his childhood he learned to play the
organ and sang in the church choir thereby developing a life-long
passion for music.
He received his PhD in mathematics from the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign in 1966. The title of his dissertation was
"Quadratic Differential Systems for Mathematical Models" and was
written under the supervision of Donald Gilles. After completing
his PhD, he was a post-doctoral fellow at Brookhaven National Lab
on Long Island. In 1968 he joined IBM Research where he worked
until his retirement in 2002.
At IBM he was a principal architect of the Scratchpad system, one
of the earliest computer algebra systems (1971). ***** always
believed that natural user interfaces were essential and developed
a user-friendly rule-based system for Scratchpad. Although this
rule-based approach was easy to use, as algorithms for computer
algebra became more complicated, he began to understand that an
abstract data type approach would give sophisticated algorithm
development considerably more leverage. In 1977 he began the Axiom
development (originally called Scratchpad II) with the design of
MODLISP, a merger of Lisp with types (modes). In 1980, with the
help of many others, he completed an initial prototype design
based on categories and domains that were intended to be natural
for mathematically sophisticated users.
During this period many researchers in computer algebra visited
IBM Research, Yorktown Heights and contributed to the development
of the Axiom system. All this activity made the computer algebra
group at IBM one of the leading centers for research in this area
and ***** was always there to organize the visits and provide a
stimulating and pleasant working environment for everyone. He had
a good perspective on the most important research directions and
worked to attract world-renowned experts to visit and interact
with his group. He was an ideal manager for whom to work, one who
always put the project and the needs of the group members first.
It was a joy to work in such a vibrant & stimulating environment.
After many years of development, a decision was made to rename
Scratchpad II to Axiom and to release it as a product. ***** and
Robert Sutor were the primary authors of the book Axiom: The
Scientific Computation System. In the foreword of the book written
by David & Gregory Chudnovsky, it is stated that "The Scratchpad
system took its time to blossom into the beautiful Axiom product.
There is no rival to this powerful environment in its scope and,
most importantly, in its structure and organization." Axiom was
recently made available as free software. See
http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/axiom.
***** was active in service to the computer algebra community as
well. Here are some highlights. He served as Chair of ACM SIGSAM
(1979-81) and Conference Co-chair (with J. A. van Hulzen) of
EUROSAM '84, a precursor of the ISSAC meetings. ***** also had a
long period of service on the editorial board of the Journal of
Symbolic Computation. At ISSAC '95 in Montreal, ***** was elected
to the initial ISSAC Steering Committee and was elected as the
second Chair of the Committee in 1997. He, along with David
Chudnovsky, organized the highly successful meetings on Computers
and Mathematics that were held at Stanford in 1986 & MIT in 1989.
***** had many interests outside of his professional pursuits
including reading, travel, physical fitness, and especially music.
***** was an accomplished pianist, organist, and vocalist. At one
point he was the organist and choirmaster of the Church of the
Holy Communion in Mahopac, NY. In the 1980s and 1990s, he sang in
choral groups under the direction of Dr. Dennis Keene that
performed at Lincoln Center in New York city.
Especially important to him was his family: his eldest son Doug
and his wife Patricia, his son Daniel and his wife Mercedes, a
daughter Susan, his brother Albert and his wife Barbara, his
sister Diane Alabaster and her husband Harold, his grandchildren
Douglas, Valerie, Ryan, and Daniel Richard, and step-granddaughter
Danielle. His longtime companion, Barbara Gatje, shared his love
for music, traveling, Point O'Woods, and life in general.
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