| William R. Cook | |
| Birth Date: | 21 November 1963 |
| Death Place: | Austin, Texas, U.S. |
| Discipline: | Computer science |
| Workplaces: | University of Texas at Austin, Apple Inc., HP Labs |
| Education: | Brown University (PhD) |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Peter Wegner |
| Thesis Title: | A denotational semantics of inheritance |
| Thesis Url: | http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/22269012 |
| Thesis Year: | 1989 |
| Known For: | Denotational semantics of Inheritance; Object-oriented programming; AppleScript |
William Randall Cook[1] (November 21, 1963 – October 27, 2021) was an American computer scientist, who was an associate professor in the Department of Computer Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin.
Cook was born on November 21, 1963. He received his Ph.D. in computer science from Brown University in 1989.
Cook's research concentrated on object-oriented programming, programming languages, modeling languages, and the interface between programming languages and databases. Prior to joining UT in 2003, he was chief technology officer and co-founder of Allegis Corporation, where he was chief architect for several award-winning products, including the eBusiness Suite at Allegis, the writer's Solution for Prentice Hall, and the AppleScript language at Apple Computer.
Cook won the Senior Dahl–Nygaard Prize in 2014.
Cook died on October 27, 2021, at the age of 57.[2]