Alexander L'vovich Brudno

Best known for fully describing the alpha-beta (α-β) search algorithm, Brudno was a Russian Jewish computer scientist who lived in Israel from 1991. He developed the "mathematics/machine interface" for the M-2 computer...

Aleksandr Semenovich Kronrod

Known for the Gauss–Kronrod quadrature formula, which he published in 1964, Kronrod was a Soviet mathematician and computer scientist. Earlier in his career, his computations informed theoretical physics. He was also known...

Charles Babbage

Designer of the first mathematical computer, Babbage was an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor, and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer. Parts of his uncompleted mechanisms are on display...

Harlan B. Mills

Pioneer in automata theory and structured programming, Mills transformed software development through his advocacy of mathematical and statistical principles in software engineering. In 1969, Mills was asked to write a program creating...

Irving Stoy Reed

Co-inventor of the Reed-Solomon error-detecting and correcting codes, Reed made many contributions to areas of electrical engineering including radar, signal processing, and image processing. He was part of the team that built...

Tim Roughgarden

Noted for his work in network data loss, Roughgarden introduced novel techniques that quantified the lost efficiency associated with the uncoordinated behavior of network users who acted in their own self-interest, building...

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...

Leonardo Torres y Quevedo

Pioneer in remote control technology, Torres y Quevedo developed the Telekino — a robot that executed commands transmitted by electromagnetic waves — presenting it at the Paris Academy of Science in 1903. A...

John Warner Backus

Leader of the team that invented FORTRAN, the first widely used high-level programming language, Backus also invented the Backus-Naur form (BNF), the almost universally used notation to define formal language syntax. He...

David Albert Huffman

Best known for his legendary Huffman code, a compression scheme for lossless variable length encoding, Huffman joined the faculty at MIT in 1953. He was awarded the Louis E. Levy Medal in...

Ralph Edward Gomory

Credited with many fundamental contributions to advanced technology — including the single-transistor memory cell, high-density storage devices, silicon processing methods, and relational database theory — Gomory is an American applied mathematician and...

Raymond (Ray) F. Boyce

Co-developer of SQL, the first commercially successful language for relational databases, Boyce's work established the standard for relational database query languages still in use today. He was also known for his research...

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...

Anil K. Jain

Internationally recognized for contributions to pattern recognition, computer vision, and biometric recognition, Jain has served as a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Computer Science & Engineering at Michigan State University...

Peter Goddard

A mathematical physicist who helped establish a permanent Archives Center at the IAS, Goddard is known for his contributions to string theory and conformal field theory, including the no-ghost theorem (proved together...

Leonard Max Adleman

Co-inventor of the RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) cryptosystem, Adleman is a theoretical computer scientist and professor of computer science and molecular biology at the University of Southern California. RSA is in widespread use in...

Alston Scott Householder

Instrumental in introducing the ORACLE computer to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Householder was also an American mathematician who specialized in mathematical biology and numerical analysis, and was the inventor of the Householder...

Joseph (Joe) Frederick Traub

Co-pioneer of information-based computational complexity, Traub was the Edwin Howard Armstrong Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University and External Professor at the Santa Fe Institute. He held positions at Bell Laboratories,...

Winifred (Tim) Alice Asprey

Early female computer pioneer who established the first computer science lab at Vassar College, Asprey was one of only around 200 women to earn PhDs in mathematics from American universities during the...

Emil Leon Post

Best known for his work in the field that eventually became known as computability theory, Post made foundational contributions to mathematical logic and the theory of computation. In his doctoral thesis, Post proved,...