Gladys West

Recognized for her contributions to mathematical modeling of the shape of the Earth, West was an African American mathematician whose work on satellite geodesy models was later incorporated into the Global Positioning...

Irving John Good

Mathematician and cryptologist responsible for the term "technological singularity," Good was a pioneering figure in computing, statistics, and codebreaking. On 27 May 1941, having just obtained his doctorate at Cambridge, Good walked into...

Sergio Verdu

Known for pioneering the field of multiuser detection, Verdú has served as the Eugene Higgins Professor of Electrical Engineering at Princeton University, where he has taught and conducted research on Information Theory...

Alexey Andreevich Lyapunov

One of the founders of cybernetics and a computer pioneer in Russia, Lyapunov made foundational contributions to the development of computing and cybernetics in the Soviet Union. In 1928, Lyapunov enrolled in Moscow...

Peter Naur

Contributor to the creation of the ALGOL 60 programming language, Naur won the 2005 ACM A.M. Turing Award for his work on defining it. In particular, his role as editor of the...

Robin Oliver Gandy

A pioneer in recursion theory, Gandy is best known for the Spector-Gandy theorem, the Gandy Stage Comparison theorem, and the Gandy Selection Theorem. A British mathematician and logician, he was a friend,...

Richard Ernest Bellman

Developer of dynamic programming, Bellman made foundational contributions to mathematics and computer science by introducing a method for solving complex problems by breaking them down into simpler sub-problems. An American applied mathematician...

William (Velvel) Morton Kahan

One of the foremost experts on floating-point computations, Kahan is recognized for his fundamental contributions to numerical analysis and has dedicated himself to "making the world safe for numerical computations." Among his...

Susan T. Dumais

Researcher whose work at Bellcore (now Telcordia Technologies) into the vocabulary problem in information retrieval led to the invention of Latent Semantic Indexing, Dumais has served as a Principal Researcher in the...

Frederick (Fred) Jacob Damerau

Pioneer in natural language processing and data mining, Damerau spent over four decades at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown, New York. Born in Parma, Ohio, son of the...

Jacob Bernoulli

Known for numerous mathematical landmarks including Bernoulli Numbers and the Bernoulli Differential Equation, Bernoulli became familiar with calculus through a correspondence with Gottfried Leibniz, then collaborated with his brother Johann on various...

Antonin Svoboda

Czech computer scientist and creator of fault-tolerant computer design, Svoboda was one of the most influential scientists in the 20th century. He was born in Prague in 1907. Attending a series of...

David Elliott Bell

Co-developer of the highly influential Bell-LaPadula security model, Bell is a mathematician and computer security pioneer. His management experience has ranged from line management up to executive and Board of Directors responsibilities....

Stephen Cole Kleene

American mathematician who helped lay the foundations for theoretical computer science, Kleene was best known as a founder of the branch of mathematical logic known as recursion theory. One of many distinguished...

Robert Morris

Contributor to early versions of UNIX, Morris developed the math library, the program crypt, and the password encryption scheme used for user authentication. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and received a...

Jacob Ziv

Co-developer of the LZ77 lossless data compression algorithm, Ziv made foundational contributions to information theory. From 1955 to 1959, he was a Senior Research Engineer in the Scientific Department Israel Ministry of Defense,...

Ronald (Ron) Fagin

Pioneer in database theory and finite model theory, Fagin is an American computer scientist and IBM Fellow at the IBM Almaden Research Center, best known for introducing the Fourth Normal Form and...

Michael James Lighthill

Pioneer in aeroacoustics and developer of television and communications satellites, Lighthill was a British applied mathematician known for his pioneering work in fluid dynamics. He worked at the National Physical Laboratory, Trinity...

Victor Mayer Amédée Mannheim

Inventor of the modern slide rule, Mannheim standardized the design that remained in common use until pocket calculators took over. After graduating from the École d'Application in Metz, Mannheim became an officer of...

Amir Pnueli

Pioneer of temporal logic in computing science, Pnueli made a major breakthrough in the verification and certification of concurrent and reactive systems with his landmark 1977 paper "The Temporal Logic of Programs,"...