Matthew West (1953 - 2023)

Mikes Notes

I was saddened to read of the recent death of Dr Matthew West in the UK on August 1 2023.

I had some contact with him on the Ontolog Forum. He was a great help to me when sorting out critical issues with PIPI about using BORO, 4D'ism, schema, data catalogues, and upper-level ontologies. 

He did pioneering work on integrating space-time into data models (4D'ism). He was very experienced and right on a lot of issues.

I first discovered him while searching for information about temporal data models. Then, I came across the UK Digital Twin Project, of which he was the technical lead, to discover a fascinating series of reports on ontologies and frameworks. He then led me onto the Ontolog Forum that I joined. So, thank you, Matthew.

From the Ontolog Forum Bio

Matthew joined Information Junction, as a director in 2008, where he delivers consultancy in information management, and is the Technical Lead for the UK Digital Twin programme. He gained a BSC and PhD in Chemical Engineering and joined Shell in 1978, initially as a Refinery Technologist, but from 1987 on the computing/business interface with a particular interest in Information Management and Data Modelling. He has been a key technical contributor to ISO 15926 "Lifecycle integration of process plant data including oil and gas production facilities" and IIDEAS (ISO 18876) - Integration of Industrial Data for Exchange, Access and Sharing. He also developed a data model of Shell's Global Downstream business.

Matthew was the Shell Visiting Professor in the Keyworth Institute at the University of Leeds. He is a Member of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, the British Computer Society, and he is a Chartered Engineer and a Chartered IT Professional. He is a member of the Ontolog Board of Trustees.

He is the author of "Developing High Quality Data Models" and was awarded an OBE for services to information management in the 2021 New Years Honours List (UK).

More information

• https://ontologforum.com/index.php/MatthewWest
• https://www.matthew-west.org.uk/
• https://hqdmtop.github.io/hqdmFramework/
• Constructional Story Seminar in 2021 at Cambridge University where both Chris Partridge and Matthew West presented. https://gateway.newton.ac.uk/event/tgmw80/programme
• BORO

List of publications from his website

Here you will find selected references to books, papers, articles, and presentations that I have written that are in the public domain. For many of them electronic versions of the documents are available here or elsewhere on the web.

• Hetherington, J., & West, M. The pathway towards an Information Management Framework - A ‘Commons’ for Digital Built Britain. doi.org/10.17863/CAM.52659 2020
• West, Matthew Business Applications: Oil and Gas in Interoperability for digital engineering systems Moreno, Anna FrancoAngeli 2014
• West, Matthew Developing High Quality Data Models Morgan Kaufmann 2011
• Web browsable version of the HQDM_FRAMEWORK data model
• West, Matthew 4 Dimensional Data Modelling: An Ontological Approach presented at the DAMA Conference London, 2008
• West, Matthew ISO 8000 Quality Standards for Data and Information presented at the DAMA Conference London, 2008
• West, Matthew Ontology Meets Business pp 229-260 Complex Systems in Knowledge-based Environments: Theory, Models and Applications, Eds Tolk, A and Lain, L.C. 2009
• West Matthew ISO 15926: Original purpose and possible future Presentation to Sogndal Workshop on ISO 15926 September 2008
• West, Matthew Roles: A Four-Dimensional Analysis pp45-55 Formal Ontology Meets Industry, Eds. Borgo and Lesmo, IOS Press 2008
• West, Matthew Petroleum Industry Benchmark Presented at the Integrated EA Conference, London, 2008.
• West, Matthew Levels of reality in ISO 15926 and Shell's Downstream Data Model Presented at Levels of Reality conference, Bolzano 2007.
• West, Matthew Developing Shell’s Downstream Data Model based on ISO 15926, Norwegian Semantic Days, 2007
• West, Matthew An Introduction to 4 Dimensionalism in Data Modelling Presented to the School of Computing, Leeds University 2007-02-09
• West, Matthew; Partridge, Chris; Lycett, Mark Enterprise Data Modelling: Developing an Ontology-Based Framework for the Shell Downstream Business FOMI 2006
• West, Matthew; Developing Shell's Downstream Data Model: Approach and Experiences DAMA UK Conference, 2006
• West, Matthew; A response to “Against Idiosyncrasy in Ontology Development" by Barry Smith 2006
• West, Matthew An Introduction to ISO 15926 ONTOLOG 2006
• Rafael Batres, Matthew West, David Leal, David Price, Yuji Naka; An Upper Ontology based on ISO 15926 ESCAPE 15, 2005
• Stell, John G. West, Matthew A 4-Dimensionalist Mereotopology pp 261-272 Formal Ontology in Information Systems, Varzi, A.C. Vieu, L. (eds) IOS Press, 2004
• West, Matthew Creating and using reference data with ISO15926 PDT Europe, 2004
• West, Matthew Some Industrial Experiences in the Development and Use of Ontologies EKAW04 Workshop on Core Ontologies, 2004
• West, Matthew; Angus, Chris; Ottmann, Bruce A Framework for Assessing the Intelligence of Computer Systems PDT Europe 2003
• West, Matthew Common Reference Data - the foundation of e-Business, PDT Europe 2003
• West, Matthew An Informal Introduction to Non-well-founded Sets, 2003.
• West, Matthew Replaceable Parts: A Four Dimensional Analysis prepared for the COSIT'03 - Workshop on fundamental issues in spatial and geographic ontologies, 2003.
• West, Matthew Sullivan, Jan; Teijgeler, Hans ISO 15926-2 - Lifecycle integration of process plant data including oil and gas production facilities: Data model: EXPRESS and EXPRESS-G listing ISO TC184/SC4/WG3N1328, (2003)
• West, Matthew A spatio-temporal model of activity and state prepared for ACTOR 2002
• West, Matthew Information Modelling: An analysis of the uses and meanings of associations PDT Europe 2002, PDF
• West, Matthew Fowler, Julian The "IIDEAS" architecture and integration methodology for integrating enterprises PDT Europe 2001 (2001), slides
• West, Matthew; Fowler, Julian The "IIDEAS" architecture and integration methodology for integrating enterprises PDT Days 2001 (2001), PDF
• West, Matthew; Angus, Chris; EXIST: a language to support data model integration pp 293-300 PDT Europe 2K
• Venter, K. & West, M.R. Asset Information Management Strategies for the Railways pp30-36 ASPECT/IRSE '99
• West, Matthew A foundation integration model for industrial data pp117-128 PDT Europe 1999
• West, Matthew The Role of Enterprise Models in Integration, Paper presented to BCS Patterns group (1998)
• West, Matthew STEP into the real world pp 25-30 European PDT Days 1998
• West, Matthew Integration and sharing of industrial data pp 145-154 European PDT Days 1997
• West, Matthew; Fowler, Julian Developing High Quality Data Models (Version 2.0) EPISTLE (1996)
• West, Matthew STEP: Productivity for Industry Paper presented to Standards Australia (1996)
• West, Matthew; Managing Data Quality Shell International (1993)
(A publicly available version of an internal Shell report, by kind permission of Shell)
• West M.R., Computer supervision of process plant - a user report, Process Systems Engineering PSE '85, Symposium Series No 92 pp 263-270, 1985
• West M.R., The mathematical modelling of anionic polymerisation in a continuous stirred tank reactor, PhD Thesis, Leeds University (1981)
• Moore J.G., West M.R., Brooks J.R., The Anionic Solution Polymerization of Butadiene in a Stirred-Tank Reactor, ACS Symposium Series 104 Washington DC (1979)
• Dew P.M., West M.R., Estimating and controlling the global error in Gear's method, BIT 19, pp135-137, (1979)
• Dew P.M., West M.R., A Package for integrating stiff systems of ordinary differential equations based on Gear's method Report 111, Dept. Computer Studies Leeds University (1978)
• Dew P.M., West M.R., Control of global error in the solution of stiff systems of Ordinary Differential Equations Report 107, Dept. Computer Studies Leeds University (1978)