David A. Mix Barrington

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I am Professor of Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

My primary research area is computational complexity, particularly boolean circuits, automata, and logic.

Currently I am the Chief Undergraduate Advisor for the Computer Science Department. For the spring term of 2007 I was the Associate Chair for Academic Programs.

Contact Info:

Course Web Sites:

Here is some information on an undergraduate textbook I am writing, called A Mathematical Foundation for Computer Science, under contract to McGraw-Hill. The current (fourth) draft was used as the text for CMPSCI 250 in Spring 2006. Parts of a fifth draft were used in CMPSCI 251 in Spring 2007, and other parts were in CMPSCI 250 in Fall 2007.

Here is a list of restaurants in Amherst and vicinity (updated July 2006).

Here are some lists of undirected graphs with various numbers of vertices.

I'm a member of the Unitarian Society of Northampton and Florence, where I have led and co-led several summer worship services. Here is a page of links to material on all those services. My service last year was on 6 August 2006 -- my title was "Evidence of Things Not Seen?" and I discussed The End of Faith by Sam Harris. Last summer I led a service, on 5 August 2007, titled "The Errors of Comedy". .

My wife Jessica Mix Barrington has posted some fine pictures from her 2005 trip to Italy here.

I was part of a group that has created the North Amherst Community Farm, and thus preserved farming on most of a 38-acre tract near my house.

I am a co-author of a collaborative alternate history, For All Nails, extending For Want of a Nail by Robert Sobel.

I'm a member of Valley Light Opera. I sang in the chorus of H.M.S. Pinafore (2003) Ruddigore (2004), and The Mikado (2007). In November 2005 I sang Pritschisch in VLO's production of Lehar's The Merry Widow and in November 2006 I sang Annibale in The Gondoliers.

I'm also a member of the Hampshire Shakespeare Company, which among other activities puts on two Shakespeare plays each summer outdoors at the Hartsbrook School in Hadley. Last summer (2007) I was in both King Lear (Burgundy, Ensemble) and A Comedy of Errors (Egeon). My prior HSC roles were in Macbeth (2006, the Doctor), Julius Caesar (2005, Cobbler, Metellus Cimber, Ensemble), A Midsummer Night's Dream (2005, Egeus, Philostrate), Love's Labors Lost (2003, Nathaniel), and The Winter's Tale (2002, Shepherd).

I was co-chair (with Prof. Neil Immerman) of local arrangements for the Nineteenth Annual IEEE Conference on Computational Complexity, held in Amherst 21-24 June 2004. Here is the local arrangements page with information about the conference, a detailed program, and a page of photos of scenic Amherst and vicinity.

My occasional political blogging can be found at Blue Mass Group, MyDD, and the John Edwards for President blog.

Some sites I read far too regularly:

Coming soon (?) -- a list of books I often recommend to people.

There are more things that ought to be on this site but who am I trying to kid...

Last modified 17 January 2007