Maurice Vincent Wilkes

Designer and builder of EDSAC, the first fully productive stored-program electronic computer, Wilkes transformed the foundations of modern computing.

Wilkes designed and constructed EDSAC at Cambridge University as the first fully productive stored-program electronic computer. He invented the microprogram and served as the first President of the British Computer Society. Throughout his career, he received numerous prizes and honours. A Fellow of the Royal Society with a PhD in Physics, Wilkes was knighted in 2000.

Wilkes remained active in research well into his nineties — a true hero of the computer age.