Julian Richards is Professor of Archaeology at the University of York, and is founding Director of the Archaeology Data Service and the Centre for Digital Heritage. His direct involvement in archaeological computing began in 1980 when he started his PhD research studying pre-Christian burial ritual using the computing power of an ICL mainframe and an early Z80 micro-computer. In 1985 he co-authored the first textbook in archaeological computing, and has subsequently written numerous papers and edited a number of books on the applications of information technology in archaeology.