David A. Thompson

Pioneer in the design and development of thin film magnetic head technology for use in high-density data storage, Thompson has served as Director of the Advanced Magnetic Recording Laboratory at IBM Almaden...

Benjamin Zorn

Co-developer of Nozzle and Zozzle, programs that detect and protect browsers against JavaScript-based malware, Zorn has also led the Software Design and Implementation Group at Microsoft Research, Redmond, Washington, as part of...

Francis (Fran) O. Underwood

Chief Architect of the IBM 1401, known as the SPACE Machine, Underwood was an engineer, machine designer, and engineering trainer for IBM. Born in Omaha, NE, he came from a line of...

Jim Barton

Inventor of the modern digital video recorder, which allows consumers to view television programming on their own schedules, Barton co-founded TiVo Inc. and set the technical vision for the company. Barton has served...

Horst Feistel

Initiator of research that culminated in the development of the Data Encryption Standard (DES), Feistel was a German-born cryptographer who worked on the design of ciphers at IBM. Born in Berlin, Germany,...

Steven (Steve) Paul Jobs

Co-founder and CEO of Apple, Jobs was an American business magnate who also previously served as chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios. He became a member of the board of The Walt...

Wei Yen

Major contributor to the Cydra-5 mini-supercomputer, Yen is a software developer and entrepreneur who has been involved with several companies, including as chairman and founder of AiLive. He and his brother David...

Larry Wall

Creator of Perl, Wall is one of the most influential figures in the open-source software movement. Wall studied linguistics and music at Seattle Pacific University, where he graduated in 1976. He later attended...

Shawn Fanning

Developed Napster, one of the first popular peer-to-peer filesharing platforms

Charles (Chuck) Harwood

CEO of Signetics, a Corning subsidiary and one of the largest integrated-circuit manufacturers in the world, Harwood led the company as sales grew from $35 million to $720 million during his tenure...

John Alan Lasseter

Pioneer in the use of CGI animation and one of the three founding fathers of Pixar Animation Studios, Lasseter has served as the chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation...

Sophia Bekele

Founder and CEO of CBS International, a private California-based firm engaged in technology transfer to emerging economies, Bekele is a business executive and writer. She founded SbCommunications Network - SbCNet, in Ethiopia. In...

Diane P. Pozefsky

Leader of the IBM team that developed APPN and AnyNet architectures, which broke the barriers between TCP/IP and SNA networking technologies, Pozefsky was named an IBM Fellow in 1994 in recognition of...

Andrew Mason

Developer of Groupon, a website that sells deals to local businesses, Mason grew up in Mt. Lebanon, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, and graduated from Mt. Lebanon High School in 1999. He...

Audrey Tang

A free software programmer as well as a politician, Tang is described as one of the "ten greatest Taiwanese computing personalities." They are a leader of the Haskell and Perl programming language...

Karlheinz Brandenburg

Inventor of the MP3 data format, Brandenburg developed the audio compression format together with other researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute at Erlangen. He has served as a Professor at the Technical University...

Hakon Wium Lie

Proposer of the concept of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), Wium Lie worked as an employee at W3C, where he developed CSS into a W3C Recommendation. Wium Lie proposed the Acid2 test, which was...

Jack St. Clair Kilby

Nobel Prize laureate in physics in 2000 for his invention of the integrated circuit, Kilby was also the inventor of the handheld calculator and thermal printer.

David Packard

Co-founder of Hewlett-Packard (1939), Packard served as president (1947–1964), CEO (1964–1968), and Chairman of the Board (1964–1968, 1972–1993). He served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense from 1969–1971 during the Nixon administration. Packard...

Jeffrey (Jeff) M. Nick

Major role player in setting technical direction for EMC Corporation's M&A activities in the areas of Cloud computing, software-defined data center, and data analytics, Nick has served as Senior Vice President and...