Charles R. Trimble

Developer of the Global Positioning System (GPS) for commercial and consumer applications, Trimble founded Trimble Navigation Limited (TNL) in 1978 along with two partners from Hewlett-Packard, initially operating from Los Altos, California....

Peter Kogge

Designer of the Space Shuttle I/O processor — one of the first multithreaded computers and the first to fly in space — Kogge is a computer engineer and 1993 IBM Fellow who...

Hans Peter Luhn

Creator of the Luhn algorithm and KWIC (Key Words In Context) indexing, Luhn was a computer scientist for IBM whose work is in wide use today. The Luhn algorithm, or Luhn formula,...

Walter Houser Brattain

Co-inventor of the transistor, along with William Shockley and John Bardeen, Brattain made one of the most consequential contributions to modern electronics. Brattain's employment at Bell Laboratories in the years before World War...

Wallace John Eckert

A part of the creation of the research division of IBM, Eckert directed the Thomas J. Watson Astronomical Computing Bureau at Columbia University, which evolved into that division.

Tom Kilburn

Co-inventor of the first stored-program computer, Kilburn was a major player in the team which built the Manchester University "Baby" in 1948. He also co-invented with Freddie Williams the cathode ray storage...

Morris Chang

Founder of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Chang is sometimes called the father of Taiwan's chip industry. TSMC pioneered the "dedicated silicon foundry" industry and became the largest silicon foundry in the...

Keith Lonsdale

Co-developer of the Ferranti Mark I, believed to be the world's first commercially available computer, Lonsdale worked alongside Brian Pollard and Tom Kilburn to construct the machine, a production version of the...

William (Bill) Millard

Considered the "father" of modern computer retailing, Millard founded IMS Associates, makers of the IMSAI series of computers, and the electronics retailer ComputerLand. Millard worked for IBM and, later, as the head...

John Aris

Part of the original team that built the LEO computer, Aris later served as Director of the National Computing Centre (NCC) 1985–90, where he championed the importance and the skills of computer...

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...

Dean Eric Eastman

World-renowned expert on the electronic properties of materials and spectroscopy, Eastman is an American solid-state physicist and IBM manager. He conducted important research in the field of condensed matter physics, surface science,...

Percy Edwin Ludgate

Designer of an Analytical Engine, Ludgate helped advance calculators by expanding Charles Babbage's design for the first programmable computer. An Irish accountant working alone in Dublin, he was unaware of Charles Babbage's...

Mary Allen Wilkes

Known for her work with the LINC computer, now recognized by many as the world's first personal computer, Wilkes contributed to this landmark machine as a programmer and logic designer. She later...

John Maurice McClean Pinkerton

Co-designer of England's first business computer, the LEO computer, Pinkerton was a pioneering British computer designer who worked alongside David Caminer to produce the machine for J. Lyons and Co in 1951....

Steve Mann

Pioneer in the development of wearable computers and reality mediators in research towards cybernetics, Mann has been one of the founding members of the Wearable Computers group in the Media Lab at...

Brian Pollard

A member of the team whose research developed the Sirius, which in 1959 claimed to be the smallest and most economically priced computer in the European market, Pollard was a key figure...

Stanley Mazor

Co-designer of the world's first microprocessor, the Intel 4004, Mazor also co-patented "Symbol," a high-level language computer. Born in Chicago, Illinois, as a youth his family moved to California, where he attended...

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...

Robert Norton Noyce

Founder of Intel and co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor, Noyce is also credited (along with Jack Kilby) with the invention of the integrated circuit or microchip. Nicknamed "the Mayor of Silicon Valley," he...