Simon Frankau’s home page

If you want to know more about Simon Frankau, you’re probably at the right website. If you don’t, you’re probably not. Actually, come to think of it, this information will most likely be out of date....

At the time of writing, I’m about to start work for Google. Previously I worked as a quantitative developer at a large investment bank. I started off on compute grid infrastructure, moved onto exotic equity derivatives in Haskell (rather fun!) and then moved over to algorithmic trading for a bit of a change. I have a whole pile of geeky interests, but maths, functional programming and making big systems suck minimally seem to be the main work ones. If you want to know what I’m most into at the moment, it’s simplest to wait six months and look at what books I’ve reviewed!

Before that, I was a PhD student in the Cambridge University Computer Laboratory, initially working in what has become the Computer Architecture Group and later also in the Cambridge Programming Research Group. I was there from 2000 to 2004, and worked in the area of reconfigurable computing. More specifically, I looked at hardware synthesis from a limited pure functional language. The remains of my research web pages are available here.

Non-work topics? I am happily married to the most wonderful Caroline, with two children, David (2009) and Miranda (2011). The children have more-or-less replaced hobbies. We liked city breaks, art galleries and good food, and take the opportunity when we can. I like skiing, though I'm not very good at it. I used to really enjoy Judo and Go, but can’t find the time any more. I like typography, graphic design, retrocomputing, electronics and more. I don't claim to be good at pretty much and of them. Random geek stuff goes here.

David, Simon and Miranda

David, myself and Miranda. Caroline's taking the photo!

Last updated 25 May 2015. Mail me at random.user@arbitrary.name.