Chris Lightfoot (4 August 1978 – 11 February 2007) was an English scientist and political activist. He was the first developer, with Tom Steinberg, at e-democracy charity mySociety.
Lightfoot was born in Dulwich, England, in 1978. His mother, Prue, was a journalist and his father, Robert, was a patent agent. His older sister Steph taught him how to program the family's BBC Micro. He attended Westminster School, where he was part of the team representing the school in the British Informatics Olympiad. He used his knowledge of programming to produce a crater investigation model in the physics department at Westminster which was of an extremely high standard. This was part of a physics project in which he was awarded a 15 Merit — an outstanding and very rare full mark.
He studied the Natural Science Tripos with a focus on Physics at Clare College, Cambridge. He graduated with a Master's degree in 2000.
Lightfoot was one of the founders of Mythic Beasts, an ISP.[1]
He had suffered from depression throughout his adult life.[1] Lightfoot died by suicide on 11 February 2007.[1] [2]
He played an important role in the development of: