JOS ANNOUNCES THE K. D. TOCHER AWARD
Stewart Robinson and Simon Taylor, Editors
At the recent Simulation Workshop (SW08) conference we were delighted to announce a new Operational Research Society award: the K. D. Tocher Award. This will be given biennially to the authors of an outstanding paper appearing in the Journal of Simulation in the previous two years. The award will be presented at the biennial Simulation Workshops.
Professor Tocher wrote the first discrete-event simulation package, the General Simulation Program (GSP), whilst working at United Steels in 1958. Hence, 2008 represents the 50th anniversary of his achievement. The principles he developed still provide the basis for many modern simulation packages.
Professor K.D. Tocher
SW08 provided an opportunity to commemorate Professor Tocher's contribution to the field of simulation. Professor Brian Hollocks, from the University of Bournemouth, gave the keynote address: 'Intelligence, Innovation & Integrity - K.D. Tocher and the Dawn of Simulation.' In his talk he described how Professor Tocher took advantage of developments in computing to devise the first simulation package.
It was a great pleasure to welcome Professor Tocher's widow, Charlotte, and two children, David and Judith, to the conference. They have given their full backing to establishing the award.
From left to right; Judith Tocher, David Tocher, Charlotte Tocher, Brian Hollocks, Stewart Robinson and Simon Taylor
Part of volume 2, issue 3 of JOS will be devoted to a commemoration of Professor Tocher's achievements. We will be reprinting two of his early articles on simulation (much of which is still relevant to today) and including a written version of Professor Hollocks' keynote address.
