Hello! I’m Troy Astarte, a lecturer in Computer Science at Swansea University, Wales, UK. I’m in the lucky position of being employed to do history of computing research in a CS department—quite a rarity in the UK. I am a founding member of our newest research group, Educational, Historical, and Philosophical Foundations of Computer Science (EHP for short) and on the Executive Committee for the university History of Computing Collection (the accompanying image shows me sitting in the Collection). I graduated with a BSc in Computing Science from Newcastle University and moved into history work for my PhD, also at Newcastle, where I studied formal semantics of programming languages. I graduated in 2019 and spent a few years as a post-doc researching the history of concurrency before getting the lectureship at Swansea in 2021. I’m so grateful to my PhD supervisor, Cliff Jones, for opening the door into a career in history of computing.
When I first saw the advertisement for a new editor-in-chief of Annals, I thought “that would be nice to do in a few years’ time”. But the position remained open, and I was persuaded by a number of colleagues that I was up to the task already. I put together my application, and was honoured by the selection committee’s approval. I would like to thank Martin Campbell-Kelly, Mark Priestley, John Tucker, and Jeff Yost for their advice, encouragement, and support.
Taking on a new role is always a mixture of excitement and fear. I have always admired Annals enormously and so the responsibility of this position feels all the more acute. The staff and volunteers at Annals and the Computer Society have been very welcoming, and I must single out David Hemmendinger, my immediate predecessor, who has been wonderfully helpful, patient, and kind bringing me up to speed. David also served with diligence and care as interim editor-in-chief for which we offer thanks. I hope I will do the journal proud. I have no grand plans to reshape Annals: I am happy to maintain its unique blend of insider stories, scholarly histories, technical reflections, social considerations, and more. Variety is the journal’s strength and I intend to keep it that way.
Check out the latest issue here!
