Charles Xavier Thomas

Known for designing and patenting the first mechanical calculator, Thomas introduced the Arithmometer in 1820, though more than thirty years passed before its true commercialization in 1852, as he spent that intervening...

Wen Tsing Chow

Inventor and fundamental patent holder of programmable read-only memory (PROM), Chow was a Chinese-born American missile guidance scientist and digital computer pioneer. He was born in Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, China, near the...

John Makepeace Bennett

Pioneering computing in Australia, Bennett made key contributions both in Britain and in his home country. After wartime work on Radar in the Australian forces, John Bennett worked on a number of early...

Alan B. Fowler

Researcher of statistical fluctuations in small semiconductor systems, Fowler is an American physicist born in Denver, Colorado. He graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a B.S. degree in 1951, an M.S. degree...

Jay T. Last

Member of the so-called "traitorous eight" that founded Silicon Valley, Last was born in Butler, Pennsylvania. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Optics from the University of Rochester in 1951 and his...

Richard (Dick) John Egan

Member of the team that developed the Apollo Guidance Computer for the Apollo spacecraft that carried astronauts to the moon, Egan was also a prominent American businessman, political fundraiser, and former US...

Anthony (Tony) M. Fadell

Developer of technologies including the Sony Magic Link, Motorola Envoy, and the Apple iPod, Fadell is a Lebanese American computer science engineer. He served as Senior Vice President of the iPod Division...

Nicholas (Nick) DeWolf

Designer of more than 300 semiconductor and other test systems, including the J259, the world's first computer-operated integrated circuit tester, DeWolf co-founded Teradyne, a Boston, Massachusetts-based manufacturer of automatic test equipment, in...

Chen-Jung (Stan) Shih

Designer and developer of Taiwan's first desktop calculator, Shih is also recognized as the founder and former President of the Acer Group. Born in Lukang Township, Changhua County, Taiwan, he has been...

Carlo Heinrich Séquin

Pioneer in computer processor design, Séquin is a Professor of Computer Science at the University of California, Berkeley. He has worked with computer graphics, geometric modelling, and on the development of computer...

Wayne D. Pickette

Conceptualized as the design for putting a computer on a chip, Pickette's work is arguably one of the greatest technological advances of the Twentieth Century. A self-taught childhood electronics prodigy, he recalled...

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Discoverer of the binary number system and independent co-inventor of infinitesimal calculus, Leibniz occupied a prominent place in the history of mathematics and the history of philosophy. He developed the infinitesimal calculus...

Nicholas Constantine Metropolis

Leader of the group that designed and built the MANIAC I computer in 1952 and MANIAC II in 1957, Metropolis was a Greek American physicist born in Chicago and a graduate of...

Martin (John) M. Atalla

Co-inventor of the MOSFET and considered the "Father of the PIN," Atalla distinguished himself as an engineer, innovator, entrepreneur, and visionary in the fields of semiconductor fabrication and computer data security. Born...

Gaylord (Glenn) G. Henry

Lead architect of the IBM System/32, IBM System/38 (forerunner of AS/400), and RT/PC (forerunner of Power systems), Henry is also co-founder and President of Centaur Technologies, Inc., and has played an integral...

Paul Eliot Green, Jr.

Co-creator of the Rake receiver and supervisor of its deployment in the first-ever spread-spectrum system, Green changed the landscape of electronic signaling. He was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and was...

George Robert Stibitz

Recognized as one of the fathers of the modern digital computer for his work with Bell Labs in the 1930s and 1940s, Stibitz completed a relay-based calculator in November 1937 he dubbed...

Federico Faggin

Co-designer of the world's first microprocessor, Faggin is recognized as a foundational figure in modern computing. After obtaining his university degree, he worked at SGS Fairchild in Italy, where he developed SGS's...

Monte M. Toole

Builder of the device testing lab at Fairchild Semiconductor, Toole went on to found Novellus Surface Integrity Group (aka GaSonics International Corporation) in March 1971, serving as its Chairman until April 1998,...

Heinz Zemanek

Austrian computer pioneer who built the first European all-transistor computer in 1955, Zemanek went on to found the IBM Laboratory Vienna in 1961. The IBM Laboratory Vienna (later known colloquially as the Vienna...