Peter Eric Jackson (1949, Bridgetown, Barbados – August 3, 2011, Burnsville, Minnesota) was a British computer scientist who served as Chief Scientist, Vice President of Technology, and head of research and development at Thomson Reuters.^[1] Jackson earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from Aston University in Birmingham, worked for several years as a social worker before resuming his studies, and earned his Ph.D./doctorate in computer science and artificial intelligence at the University of Leeds. Afterwards, he taught at the University of Edinburgh.

In 1988, he went to the United States as a senior scientist at the McDonnell Douglas Research Labs. On the side, he taught courses at Washington University in St. Louis, Clarkson University in New York, and Singapore Polytechnic. He joined the Thomson Corporation in 1995. There, he applied artificial intelligence to legal topics—such as the History Assistant information retrieval system for precedents from legal databases—and to Thomson Reuters products.

His field of expertise was artificial intelligence, and he authored books on expert systems (translated into seven languages), knowledge representation, and natural language processing. As a hobby, he played jazz guitar, including in public performances.

He was born in 1949 in Bridgetown, Barbados, and graduated from University of Leeds with a Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence. He died August 3, 2011, aged 62, at his home in Burnsville, Minnesota.^[3]

Publications include Introduction to Expert Systems, published by Addison Wesley in 1986, 1992, and 1999. Logic-Based Knowledge Representation was published by MIT Press in 1989. Additionally, Natural Language Processing for Online Applications was published by John Benjamins in 2002 and 2007.

External links include the official website. Additional coverage includes "Thomson Reuters' Brain," published by Twin Cities Business in November 2009.