Johannes Kepler

Best known for his eponymous laws of planetary motion, Kepler was a German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer and a key figure in the 17th century scientific revolution. His laws were codified by...

Julius Blank

Co-developer of an inexpensive method for manufacturing silicon chips, building them from scratch beginning with the machinery for growing silicon crystals, Blank was a semiconductor pioneer and a member of the so-called...

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,...

Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander, CMG, CBE

One of the key workers on breaking the Enigma machine, Alexander made vital contributions to British codebreaking during World War II. An Irish-born British cryptanalyst, chess player, and chess writer, he was...

Heinrich Rudolf Hertz

The first to satisfactorily demonstrate the existence of electromagnetic waves, Hertz clarified and expanded the electromagnetic theory of light that had been put forth by Maxwell. He was born in Hamburg, Germany,...

Hewitt D. Crane

Developer of an eye-movement tracking device and pen-input device for computers, Crane was an American engineer best known for his pioneering work at SRI International on ERMA (Electronic Recording Machine, Accounting), for...

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...

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...

John Ambrose Fleming

Inventor of the first thermionic valve or vacuum tube, Fleming transformed the foundations of modern electronics. After leaving the University of Nottingham in 1882, Fleming took up the post of "Electrician" to...

Abdal Mammad ibn M Khwrizm

Considered the founder of algebra, Khwrizm shared this credit with Diophantus. His Kitab al-Jabr wa-l-Muqabala presented the first systematic solution of linear and quadratic equations. In the twelfth century, Latin translations of...

Marian Adam Rejewski

Solver of the plugboard-equipped Enigma machine, the main cipher device used by Germany, Rejewski was a Polish mathematician and cryptologist who accomplished this feat in 1932. His success, along with his colleagues...

George Boole

Inventor of Boolean logic, Boole was one of the most influential mathematicians in history. His father, John Boole (1779–1848), was a tradesman of limited means, but of "studious character and active mind"....

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...

Fritz Joachim Weyl

Developer of the U.S. government Office of Naval Research (ONR) Computer in 1946, Weyl was a renowned mathematician who significantly contributed to research in mathematics during his lifetime and came to be...

Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope

Inventor of two calculating machines, Stanhope was also a British statesman and scientist and a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS). Also known as Charles Mahon, 3rd Earl Stanhope, he was the...

Philipp Matthäus Hahn

Designer of the first functional mechanical calculator, Hahn was born on 25th of November, 1739 in Scharnhausen, Esslingen, as the second of ten children in a family of a pastor. From 1749...

Mary Lee Woods (aka Berners-Lee)

Member of the team that developed programs for the Manchester University Mark 1, Ferranti Mark 1 and Mark 1 Star computers, Woods was a British mathematician and computer programmer who was married...

Morton M. Astrahan

Developer of the SAGE air-defense computer and a pioneer in relational database systems, Astrahan joined IBM in 1949 and spent his entire professional career there—first at the Endicott Laboratory and then later...

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...

René Descartes

Credited as the father of analytical geometry, Descartes built the bridge between algebra and geometry that proved crucial to the discovery of infinitesimal calculus and analysis. The Cartesian coordinate system—allowing algebraic equations...