John Warner Backus

Leader of the team that invented FORTRAN, the first widely used high-level programming language, Backus also invented the Backus-Naur form (BNF), the almost universally used notation to define formal language syntax. He...

John Aris

Part of the original team that built the LEO computer, Aris later served as Director of the National Computing Centre (NCC) 1985–90, where he championed the importance and the skills of computer...

Ram Chillarege

Inventor of Orthogonal Defect Classification (ODC) technology, Chillarege has fundamentally enriched the management of software engineering. While at IBM Research, he founded the Center of Software Engineering and authored the seminal IBM...

Mina Spiegel Rees

Pioneer of federally funded computer research and development and the first woman president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), Rees transformed the landscape of postwar American science. She was...

Puneet Sharma

Recognized for work on Mobile Collaborative Communities featured in New Scientist Magazine, Sharma has served as a Senior Research Scientist at HP Labs, conducting research on Network Measurement and Monitoring, Wireless Networks,...

Winifred (Mitchell) Baker

Instrumental in the creation of the Mozilla Foundation, Baker has served as Chairperson of the Mozilla Foundation and Chairperson and former Chief Executive Officer of the Mozilla Corporation, a subsidiary of the...

Ethel Cox Marden

Participant in the creation of the first computer languages, Marden went to work for the National Bureau of Standards after World War II, serving as a mathematician and administrator. She served as...

Joseph Weizenbaum

Creator of ELIZA, the pioneering natural language processing program that prompted his growing skepticism about artificial intelligence, Weizenbaum died March 5, 2008 in Berlin. He was 85. Joseph Weizenbaum was born on January...

Frances (Betty) Elizabeth Holberton

One of the six original programmers of ENIAC, the first general-purpose electronic digital computer, Holberton made foundational contributions to the history of computing. During World War II, while the men were fighting,...

Heinrich Rohrer

Co-designer of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM), Rohrer shared half of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics with Gerd Binnig for this invention; the other half of the Prize was awarded to...

Dave Smith

Known as the "Father of MIDI" for his role in developing the Musical Instrument Digital Interface, Smith pioneered many groundbreaking technologies in music. He was also responsible for the Prophet 5, the...

Jack Yun Ma

Founder of one of the world's biggest B2B online marketplaces, Ma built Alibaba.com into an eBay for companies doing international trade. A Chinese entrepreneur and philanthropist, he also founded and served as...

John Koller

Director of Hardware Marketing at Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA), Koller has been responsible for the management and marketing of the PLAYSTATION 3, PSP (PlayStation Portable), PlayStation 2, PLAYSTATION Network marketing, and...

Edward Hance Shortliffe

Pioneer in the use of artificial intelligence in medicine, Shortliffe is best known as the principal developer of the clinical expert system MYCIN, one of the first rule-based artificial intelligence expert systems,...

Patrice Lyons

Analyzer of a wide range of legal and regulatory issues relating to the development of the Internet, Lyons has served as Corporate Counsel to Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), where she...

Bruce Eckel

Author of "Thinking in Java" and "Thinking in C++", Eckel has written numerous books and articles about computer programming. He has also given frequent lectures and seminars for computer programmers. His best...

Rowland Hanson

Creator of Microsoft's highly acclaimed branding strategy and the name "Windows," Hanson has served as Vice President of Corporate Communications at Microsoft and went on to become CEO of The HMC Company...

Russell Shoemaker Ohl

Developer of the modern solar cell and other important transistor breakthroughs, Ohl was a notable semiconductor researcher prior to the invention of the transistor. He patented the modern solar cell (US Patent...

John Russell Patrick

An influential force behind IBM's early adoption of the Internet and World Wide Web, Patrick led the team that created IBM's intranet and the IBM.com website. He was born in Salem, New...

C. Michael Armstrong

Responsible for the development and manufacture of minicomputers, personal computers, and software at IBM, Armstrong is a business executive who also led Hughes Aircraft, AT&T, and Comcast as Chairman and CEO. Born in...