About the Author
Richard J. (Rick) Sutcliffe, is Professor of Mathematics and Computing Science at Trinity Western University in British Columbia, and has been Adjunct Professor in the nearby School of Computing Science at Simon Fraser University. At TWU, Rick coordinates academic computing curriculum and facilities, serves on numerous campus committees, and has also spent two years as Acting Dean (Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences.) Sutcliffe represents Canada on international computing standards committees and has published a text in computing science, written one on ethical and social issues in technology, and has authored more than fifty articles and reviews in a variety of trade and technical publications. He has been a columnist for several magazines and newspapers (The Northern Spy, Anodidacticus, The Dialectical Apple, Through a Glass Darkly ). He coined the terms "New Renaissance", "Metalibrary", "concinnity", "Fourth Civilization" and "wired campus", has been a leader in electronic publication, and has been active on the Internet since the 1970s. He has also been an invited speaker at numerous churches, educational and computing conferences, and technical symposia at local, national, and international levels. Rick Sutcliffe writes Irish-flavoured Christian science fiction. His first series, The Interregnum, deals with a variety of technology and ethical issues in thought-provoking plots set on alternate earths. His first novel, "The Peace" was published electronically in June 2000 and became its publisher's best-seller. "The Friends", and "The Exile", books two and three the same series followed in 2003 and won to the EPPIE finals. He revived The Northern Spy electronically, and also has a Philology site at opundo.com. Affiliated companies sell domain names and do web hosting. Prior to his academic career, he taught secondary school for twelve years in Langley, BC, last at Mountain Secondary School. There, he served as his school's math/computer science department head, physics teacher, staff chairman, club sponsor, and scholarship counsellor. He brought the International Baccalaureate programme to public schools for the first time, was active in curriculum development and was among the first to use microcomputers in secondary schools. He has research interests in standards, programming languages, data structures, and in the social, ethical, and religious aspects of high technology. He is active in Aldergrove Fellowship Baptist Church, having been chairman, treasurer, deacon, elder, youth worker, librarian and Bible teacher. He has built two houses, gardens, writes software, and been active in politics. He has also been appointed as external advisor in the accreditation of several local schools. He has travelled extensively as a speaker and to represent the Canadian Standards Association and the Standards Council of Canada at ISO meetings. He presently resides in Bradner, B.C. with his wife Joyce. They have two grown sons Nathan and Joel.
