Rosemary Candlin facts for kids

Rosemary Candlin (born Rosemary Shaw in 1927) is a crystallographer and computer scientist who joined the University of Edinburgh Computer Science Department shortly after it was first established, and for some time was the only woman lecturer on the staff. She worked there from 1968 to 1995, helped design the curriculum in its early years, and developed a specialist interest in parallel programming. She then went on to work for CERN: the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

Career

Candlin studied physics as an undergraduate at the University of Cambridge, and continued her studies at the university with a PhD in crystallography. She had a succession of jobs in crystallography: at the Natural History Museum, London, at Princeton, then back to the University of Cambridge as a research assistant to Helen Megaw.

She moved to the University of Edinburgh, and continued working in crystallography there, using a distant Atlas computer linked to the university by a telephone line. She went on to take up a position at the university's Computer Science Department which had been recently established by Professor Sidney Michaelson FRSE, who wanted her to teach first-year students how to program. Initially there were no other permanent women lecturers. Candlin moved on to teach more advanced students, designed courses on real-time programming, and also on parallel programming which became her speciality.

After leaving the University of Edinburgh in 1995 she worked on physics software for CERN. This work involved ATLAS software.

Personal life

Candlin was born Rosemary Shaw in Plymouth in 1927, the only child of Eileen Shaw and Instructor Captain Robert Edward Shaw CBE ADC RN. As a result of World War II the family had to move house several times, and Candlin's schooling was disrupted. She finished her secondary education in Liverpool. In 1955 she married the physicist David Candlin.