Paul Davis (programmer)

Paul Davis was born in the United Kingdom in 1963, and grew up in the Midlands and London. After studing molecular biology and biophysics, he lived for a year in Heidelberg, and then Cambridge, before emigrating to the US in 1989. He lived in Seattle for 7 years, before moving to Philadelphia in 1996.

Professionally, he was one of the two programmers who helped start Amazon.com. After leaving early in the life of that company, he went on to use the money he made to fund the development of various audio and music software for Linux, including Ardour and the Jack Audio Connection Kit. In so doing, he became one of the few people to work full-time on free software, and almost certainly one of the few to do so without being paid by an existing commercial entity. In previous jobs, Paul worked at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Schlumberger Cambridge Research, ScenicSoft, and the Computer Science and Engineering Department at the University of Washington.

He is also a moderately accomplished ultramarathon and touring cyclist - high points have included the 298 mile Cannonball in 14:01, and a 5 week tandem camping tour from Amsterdam to Athens.

His first wife was muscle physiology researcher Elisabeth Barton, with whom he had one daughter (Hannah). In October 2004, he married artist and massage therapist Julie Deery, and lives with their 3 children Evan, Rachel and Hannah.

You can find out more about Paul and his projects at the Ardour site, the JACK homepage and his own home page.