Alex Fraser

Alex Fraser may refer to:

See also

Alex Fraser (footballer)

Alex Fraser (25 December 1908 – 13 September 1983) was an Australian rules footballer who played with St Kilda in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

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Alex Fraser (scientist)

Alex Fraser (1923–2002) was a major innovator in the development of the computer modeling of population genetics and his work has stimulated many advances in genetic research over the past decades.

His efforts in the 1950s and 1960s had a profound impact on the development of computational models of evolutionary systems. His seminal work, "Simulation of genetic systems by automatic digital computers" (1958), is quoted in the literature to this day.

Fraser was born in London, UK, and lived in Hong Kong for most of his youth. He studied at the University of New Zealand, and later went to the University of Edinburgh, and subsequently to the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Sydney, Australia.

It was at the CSIRO where Fraser made his seminal contributions to evolutionary computation. His earliest work was done on the SILIAC computer that was installed for the University of Sydney in 1956. The SILIAC was the Australian cousin to the ILLIAC machine that was developed at the University of Illinois. The machine was said to be running well when one could hear a 'rhythmic clicking of the relays inside it.' The clicking indicated that the computer was processing the iterations of the program correctly. Fraser began using it to simulate genetic selection processes.