MIT World Speakers

B. Jack Copeland

B. Jack Copeland has taught at the University of Canterbury since 1985. He is Chair of the School of Philosophy and Religious Studies. He received his D.Phil. in Philosophy from the University of Oxford (1979) for research on modal and nonclassical logics.

His publications include Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park's Codebreaking Computers (Oxford University Press, 2006);The Essential Turing (Oxford University Press, 2004); Alan Turing’s Automatic Computing Engine (Oxford University Press, 2005); Logic and Reality (Oxford University Press, 1996); and Artificial Intelligence (Blackwell, 1993). He has published more than 100 articles on the philosophy and history of computing, the philosophy of mind, and philosophical logic. He is currently writing a book on Turing's philosophical and logical work, Turing's Machines, and also a book on the philosophy of religion.

Copeland has held a variety of visiting professorships at institutions internationally. He is founding editor of The Rutherford Journal for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, and serves on the editorial boards of various philosophical journals. In 2000 he received a Marsden award from the Royal Society of New Zealand, and in 2003 the Scientific American Sci/Tech Web Award for his on-line archive.