Giovanni Poleni

Builder of the first pinwheel design calculating clock, Poleni was a pioneer of mechanical computation. Made of wood, his calculating clock was built in 1709; he destroyed it after hearing that Antonius...

Leslie John Comrie

Pioneer in mechanical computation and astronomy, Comrie was also the founder of the world's first private company for scientific computing. He was born in Pukekohe (south of Auckland), New Zealand, and attended Auckland...

Charles Proteus Steinmetz

Fostering the development of alternating current that made possible the expansion of the electric power industry in the United States, Steinmetz was a mathematician and electrical engineer who formulated mathematical theories for...

James Waddell Alexander II

Founder of cohomology theory, Alexander was also a pioneer in algebraic topology who contributed to the beginnings of knot theory by defining the first of the polynomial knot invariants. He was an American...

Albert Einstein

1921 Nobel Prize winner in Physics for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect, Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution...

Arnold Meyer Spielberg

Inventor of the first computer-controlled point-of-sale cash register, Spielberg is recognized as a pioneer in the computer industry, credited with a number of breakthroughs during his professional career, among them early guidance...

Wilhelm Schickard

Inventor of many machines, including one for calculating astronomical dates and one for Hebrew grammar, Schickard was a universal scientist whose research spanned astronomy, mathematics, and surveying. He taught biblical languages such as...

Rudolf Hell

Inventor of the Hellschreiber, an early forerunner to the fax machine, Hell was a German engineer born in Eggmühl, Germany, who studied electrical engineering in Munich from 1919 to 1923. While there...

Betty Jean Bartik (née Jennings)

One of the original six programmers of the ENIAC computer, Betty Jean Jennings (later known as Jean Bartik) helped lay the groundwork for modern computing during a pioneering era in the field....

Lionardo di ser Piero da Vinci

Among those who designed a calculator, da Vinci stands as one of history's most remarkable minds — an Italian polymath regarded as the epitome of the "Renaissance Man", displaying skills in numerous...

Albert W. Tucker

Developer of the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker conditions, a basic result in non-linear programming, Tucker was a Canadian-born American mathematician who also made important contributions in topology and game theory. Born in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada,...

Francis Wilton Reichelderfer

Instrumental in bringing modern computerized technology to weather forecasting, Reichelderfer presided over a revolutionary era in the history of the National Weather Service. From 1938 to 1963, he guided the organization through...

Erwin Tomash

Early pioneer of computer equipment peripherals and co-developer of the ERA 1103 (UNIVAC Scientific), Tomash was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota, and graduated from the University of Minnesota with an...

Vilhelm Friman Koren Bjerknes

His experiments with electric oscillations contributed much to the development of wireless telegraphy. Bjerknes was a Norwegian physicist and meteorologist who did much to found the modern practice of weather forecasting. He...

Klaus Samelson

A pioneer whose research led to a fundamental breakthrough in how computer systems are modeled and designed, Samelson also played a key role in the design of ALGOL 58 and ALGOL 60....

Isidor Isaac Rabi

Co-founder of CERN and Nobel laureate in Physics, Rabi was a Galician-born American physicist born into a traditional Jewish family in Rymanów, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now Poland), and was brought to the United...

Guglielmo Marconi

Known as the father of long distance radio transmission, Marconi was an Italian inventor celebrated for his development of Marconi's law and a radio telegraph system. Although he is often accredited as...

John Napier

Renowned as the discoverer of the logarithm and inventor of "Napier's bones," Napier was a Scottish mathematician, physicist, astronomer, and astrologer, and also the 8th Laird of Merchiston. He was the son...

David Hilbert

One of the founders of proof theory and mathematical logic, Hilbert's work laid the basis for recursion theory and later theoretical computer science. He was recognized as one of the most influential...

William (Bill) Thomas Tutte

A foundational figure in combinatorics and graph theory, Tutte performed significant work in fields with many applications in computer science, and is credited with helping create graph theory in its modern form....