Martin Henson


Professor Martin C. Henson FBCS FRSA is an English computer scientist based at the University of Essex. He is Dean for International Affairs and is affiliated to the School of Computer Science & Electronic Engineering.
Henson was Head of the Department of Computer Science from 2000–2006.

Education

Martin Henson was educated at The Bulmershe School in Woodley, Berkshire, at the University of Southampton, at the University of Reading, and the University of Essex.

Academic research

Henson's academic work is in the area of formal methods to aid software engineering. His early work was in programming language semantics, especially using algebraic approaches for structuring compiler and interpreter generation from semantic descriptions. He moved on to work in functional languages, focusing on program verification and transformation, pioneering an approach to program transformation, adapted from work in semantic equivalences, using higher-order generalisations and relational constraints. Since the late 1990s, he has undertaken research into the design and use of logic in specification and program development. With Steve Reeves, he has studied the formal semantics of the Z notation in detail. This work was used in the international ISO standard for the Z notation. Most recently he has proposed a new approach to specification, based on specification theories, developing the specification logic nuZ – a Z-like specification language with a monotonic schema calculus. This was first presented in a talk in the BCS-FACS seminar series at the British Computer Society in London in 2005.
Henson has been a Fellow of the British Computer Society since 2009 and holds a Visiting Professorship at the University of Waikato in New Zealand.

International development

Henson ran a blog on his activities as Dean at Essex University.
He has worked internationally on academic accreditation, institutional licensure and strategic planning, with a focus on the Middle East and particularly for the Commission for Academic Accreditation in the United Arab Emirates. He is an external reviewer for the Oman Academic Accreditation Authority in Muscat, Oman, and has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts since 2010.
Professor Henson has given keynote addresses on outcomes-based curriculum development, in Saudi Arabia, on institutional research strategic planning in Indonesia, and on the internationalisation of higher education in China. His other international consultancy has included Jordan, Kuwait, the West Indies, and Sweden.

Selected publications