The computer scientist Sidney Michaelson was born in London on 5 December 1925. He graduated in 1946 with a First Class Honours degree in mathematics. Michaelson planned to work in the aircraft industry but instead took research posts at Imperial College and at the Electrical Research Association Laboratories. In 1949 he became a Lecturer in mathematics at Imperial College. There, he worked on the design and construction of digital computers with K. D. Tocher and was involved with what became known as microprogramming. In 1963 he was invited to set up a computer unit at Edinburgh University and this later became the Computer Science Department. He was given the Chair of Computer Science at Edinburgh in 1966. Michaelson was also interested in the stylistic analysis of literary texts, using computers to analyse disputed authorship, chronologies of literary works, and criminal confessions. Professor Sidney Michaelson died in Edinburgh on 21 February 1991.
From the guide to the Papers of Professor Sidney Michaelson (1925-1991), 1962-1991, (Edinburgh University Library)
