(1959-) Mathematician and author of two music synthesis programming languages, Max and Pure Data (known as Pd). Originally from Chattanooga, Tennessee USA, Puckette attended school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, receiving a Ph. D. in mathematics in 1987. While working on his doctorate, Puckette developed the first version of what eventually became Max/MSP, continuing this work after he moved to Paris and the IRCAM institute after his graduation. While at IRCAM, Puckette also worked on design for music-centered digital signal processing hardware. Puckette left IRCAM in 1994 to return to the USA, taking a position at the University of California, San Diego.
Dissatisfied both with certain aspects of Max/MSP's functionality and with how IRCAM marketed the software, Puckette began working on Pd around 1996. Unlike Max, Pd was designed from the outset to handle both audio and control signal processing; it also incorporates the ability to process graphics and video, and to perform transformations between the audio and visual media. Puckette has released Pure Data under open source licensing, and a community of developers works on bug fixes and new features.
Puckette, a musician himself, has participated as a member of the avant-garde electronic trio Convolution Brothers.