David A. Mix Barrington

Parrot picture

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. Here is a list of my major publications -- a few have PDF versions and I plan to make more available as I get around to it.

Since the beginning of Fall 2011 I have been Associate Chair for Academic Programs in the Computer Science Department. For several years I have been Chief Undergraduate Advisor, and I am still a good source for academic advice in the department, along with individual faculty advisors, Undergraduate Program Director Brian Levine, new Chief Undergraduate Advisor Rod Grupen, and Associate Dean Jack Wileden.

Contact Info:

Course Web Sites:

Here is some information on an undergraduate textbook I am writing, called Discrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science, under contract to McGraw-Hill. (This information was last updated in December 2008.)

The latest complete (fourth) draft of a ten-chapter version of the book was used as the text for CMPSCI 250 in Spring 2006. I am now preparing a fifth draft of a new fifteen-chapter version. The CMPSCI 250 portions of the text were used in Fall 2007, Fall 2010, and Spring 2011, and are being used again in Spring 2012. The CMPSCI 240 portions have now been used several times, most recently by Prof. McGregor in Fall 2011.

Here is a list of restaurants in Amherst and vicinity (updated July 2006). For a more comprehensive and more up-to-date publicly-edited list that originally derived from this one, see the UMass Wiki.

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 worship services and recently served on the Board of Trustees. Here is a page of links to material on all those services. On 11 December 2011 I led my first "regular-season" service, co-created with Mike Nagy, entitled "What is UU Music". My latest summer service was on 15 August 2010, entitled "Mens Sana in Corpore Sano". I had planned to lead a summer service called "The End of the World?" on 28 August 2011, discussing (among other things) natural disasters, but this service was cancelled due to the threat from Hurricane Irene.

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

I was part of a group that 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. More information, most of it writen by my For All Nails collaborator Johnny Pez, is available at the Sobel Wiki, with encyclopedic depiction of the alternate world of Sobel's book, and a partial archive of For All Nails material.

I'm a member of Valley Light Opera. I sang in the chorus of H.M.S. Pinafore (2003), Ruddigore (2004), The Mikado (2007), Princess Ida (2008), The Pirates of Penzance (2009), Iolanthe (2010), and The Sorcerer (2011). 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. This March I am participating in the chorus of VLO's concert staging of the rarely-performed opera Haddon Hall by Sydney Grundy and Sir Arthur Sullivan.

I'm also a member of the Hampshire Shakespeare Company, which among other activities puts on two Shakespeare plays each summer. These have been outdoors at the Hartsbrook School in Hadley, but from this summer forward will be at the Renaissance Center at UMass. This year I played Autolicus (and Archidamus) in The Winter's Tale. In the summer of 2009 I played Westmoreland and Glendower in Henry IV: Part I. For the latter part I learned how to call spirits from the vasty deep. In the summer of 2010 I played Gonzalo in The Tempest.

My prior HSC roles were in As You Like It (2008, Adam), King Lear (2007, Burgundy, Ensemble), A Comedy of Errors (2007, Egeon), 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, Blue Hampshire, and MyDD.

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 23 January 2012