Robert W. Doran


Robert William Doran HFNZCS was a New Zealand-based computer scientist and historian of computing. He was Professor Emeritus of Computer Science at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
Robert W. Doran studied at the University of Canterbury and for a Masters in computer science from Stanford University in 1967. He taught at City University and Massey University. He first worked with computers in 1963. He was a Principal Computer Architect at Amdahl Corporation during 1976–1982. He joined the Department of Computer Science at the University of Auckland in 1982 and was Head of Department. He maintained computing history displays in the department, especially of totalisators.
Doran's research interests included computer architecture, parallel algorithms, and computer programming. He was also interested in the history of computing. In 2017, he contributed to The Turing Guide.
Robert Doran was made an Honorary Fellow of the New Zealand Computer Society, now the Institute of IT Professionals.
Bob Doran died on 13 October 2018 at home in Auckland.

Selected publications

Doran is also a listed inventor on the following US patents assigned to Amdahl Corporation:
4503512, 4967342, 5109522.