Gregory Bateson

A pioneer in extending systems theory and cybernetics to the social and behavioral sciences, Bateson had a natural ability to recognize order and pattern in the universe. In the 1940s he helped...

Larry Smarr

Advocate for a high-speed network linking the National Science Foundation and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications — which became the NSFnet, one of the significant predecessors of today's Internet — Smarr...

Norbert Wiener

Founder of cybernetics, Wiener pioneered the study of stochastic and noise processes, contributing work relevant to electronic engineering, electronic communication, and control systems. Cybernetics, the field he founded, formalized the notion of...

Kate Devlin

Founder of the UK's first sex tech hackathon, held in 2016 at Goldsmiths, University of London, Devlin is a Northern Irish computer scientist whose work sits at the intersection of human sexuality...

Keith Uncapher

Pioneer of packet switching and MOSIS, Uncapher spread the ideas that later evolved into the Internet. Under his leadership, ISI provided support for emerging DARPA programs in Information Technology. There, Uncapher assembled...

Dario de Judicibus

Founder of the Reuse Shop, the first IBM group to create software libraries of building blocks that could be used to develop products, de Judicibus is a prolific inventor and pioneer in...

Walter (Dave) David Sincoskie

Inventor of the Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN), Sincoskie also installed the first ethernet local area network at Bellcore and helped invent voice over IP technology. He co-authored the first specifications for...

Clifford Ivar Nass

Co-creator of The Media Equation theory, which holds that people tend to treat computers and other media as if they were either real people or real places, Nass was a renowned authority...

Karl Ganzhorn

Director of IBM development in Europe, Ganzhorn founded and led the German laboratory of IBM at Böblingen. He initiated major development efforts in semiconductor memories, computer systems, and software. Ganzhorn has served as...

Allen Newell

Pioneer in artificial intelligence, Newell made basic contributions to AI and the psychology of human cognition, for which he and Herbert Simon were awarded the ACM's A.M. Turing Award in 1975. He...

Rolf William Landauer

A significant contributor in diverse areas of the thermodynamics of information processing, condensed matter physics, and the conductivity of disordered media, Landauer was a German-American physicist who made important contributions across these...

Dennis M. Jennings

Responsible for three critical decisions that shaped the subsequent development of NSFNET, the network that became the Internet, Jennings is an Irish physicist, academic, Internet pioneer, and venture capitalist. In 1985, he...

Louis N. Ridenour

Co-patentee of an early hybrid optical-magnetic information storage system, Ridenour also served as Vice President of Lockheed and as an advisor to President Eisenhower. In 1941 he became the assistant director of...

Geoff Huston

Leader of the initial construction of the Internet in Australia in the late 1980s, Huston is widely regarded as the preeminent researcher on IPv4 exhaustion, routinely referenced by international agencies and frequently...

Hans-Joachim Queisser

Inventor of a high-power luminescent diode — an infrared light emitting diode (LED) that now forms the basis of almost every household remote control device — Queisser was a solid-state physicist also...

Steve Lukasik

Chief Scientist of the Federal Communications Commission, Lukasik advised the Commission on technical issues in communication regulation and the management of non-government use of the electromagnetic spectrum. He received a B.S. in Physics...

Charles Kuen Kao

Pioneer in the development and use of fiber optics in telecommunications, Kao is known as the "Godfather of Broadband," "Father of Fiber Optics," and "Father of Fiber Optic Communications." He was jointly...

Elizabeth M. Belding

Founder and Director of the Mobility Management and Networking (MOMENT) Laboratory, Belding has served as a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and as...

Jacob (Jack) Goldman

Creator of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, Goldman established one of the most influential research institutions in the history of modern computing. An American physicist and former Chief Scientist, Chief Technical...

Howard Frank

Conductor of the original topological analysis for the ARPAnet, Frank evaluated the network's performance and reliability and studied how the technology could be applied to the larger world. Having earned his Ph.D....