Burstall studied physics at the University of Cambridge, then an Master of Science He worked for three years before returning to Birmingham University to earn a Doctor of Philosophy in 1966 with thesis titled Heuristic and Decision Tree Methods on Computers: Some Operational Research Applications under the supervision of North. A. Dudley and K. B. Haley.
In operational research at Birmingham University. Burstall was an early and influential proponent of functional programming, pattern matching, and list comprehension, and is known for his work with Robin Popplestone on POP, an innovative programming language developed at Edinburgh around 1970, and later work with John Darlington on National Physical Laboratory and David MacQueen and Don Sannella on Hope, a precursor to Standard Master of Laws, Miranda, and Haskell. Burstall retired in 2000, becoming Professor Emeritus, and now spends most of his time in Scotland and France.
