Perdita Stevens

Perdita Emma Stevens (born 1966)¹ is a British mathematician, theoretical computer scientist, and software engineer who holds a personal chair in the mathematics of software engineering as part of the School of Informatics at the University of Edinburgh. Her research includes work on model-driven engineering, including model transformation, model checking, and the Unified Modeling Language.²

Stevens read mathematics at the University of Cambridge, earning a bachelor's degree in 1987. She went to the University of Warwick for graduate study in abstract algebra, earning a master's degree in 1988 and completing a PhD in 1992.³ Her doctoral dissertation, Integral Forms for Weyl Modules of ${\displaystyle \mathrm {GL} (2,\mathrm {Q} )}$, was supervised by Sandy Green.³⁴

After working in industry as a software engineer, Stevens joined the Department of Computer Science at the University of Edinburgh in 1984. She became a reader there in 2003 and in 2014 was given a personal chair as Professor of Mathematics of Software Engineering.³

Stevens is the author of books including:

• Using UML: Software Engineering with Objects and Components (with Rob Pooley, Addison-Wesley, 1999; 2nd ed., 2006)
• How to Write Good Programs: A Guide for Students (Cambridge University Press, 2020)