Professor Marvin L. Stein

One of the founding faculty members of the department of Computer Science at the University of Minnesota, he was its Director from 1958 to 1970. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, he entered the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1941. He earned his B.A. degree in 1947, his M.A. degree in 1949. Having learned basic digital and analog operation during World War II, he earned his Ph.D. from UCLA in 1951. He worked at the UCLA Mathematician Institute of Numerical Analysis from 1948 to 1952 and as a Research Engineer at Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation from 1952 to 1955. While teaching numerical analysis at UCLA, he also worked on missile simulation at Convair, Inc., in San Diego. After becoming familiar with the ERA 1103 computer Convair purchased from Engineering Research Associates, he made frequent consultant visits to ERA headquarters in Minnesota. In 1955, the University of Minnesota hired him to introduce their first computer courses and administer ERA's gift of free computer time. He joined the faculty of the Mathematics department at the University of Minnesota as an Associate Professor in 1956 and he was promoted to Professor in 1961. In 1958 he became the Director of the Institute of Technology's Computer Center. He taught the first computer course on high-speed computation at the University on an ERA 1103. Courses on computing continued to be offered within the department of mathematics, but he, along with a few other faculty members noticed the need for new areas of computational research not covered in the Mathematics area and that a new department dedicated to computing would allow for a wider variety of courses. Upon the urging of these faculty members, a graduate program in Computer and Information Sciences was offered beginning in 1967, and in 1970 the Department of Computer Science, now the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, was established at the University of Minnesota. In 1970 he resigned from the positions of Director of the University Computer Center and Technical Director of University Computer Services to return to teaching in the Computer Science department, but still served as acting head of the department of Computer Science from 1970 to 1971 and Director of the graduate school from 1987 to 1990. He retired from the University in 2000 and was named Professor Emeritus in 2002. While he spent his entire academic teaching career at the University of Minnesota, he was also a visiting Professor at the Weismann Institute of Science in Israel from 1963 to 1964 and at Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University in Jerusalem from 1971 to 1972. He was a 2009 recipient of the President's Award for Outstanding Service which is presented each year in the spring and recognizes exceptional service to the University, its schools, colleges, departments, and service units by any active or retired faculty or staff member. Recipients of this award have gone well beyond their regular duties and have demonstrated an unusual commitment to the University community.