Patrick Cousot

Co-inventor of Abstract Interpretation, a theory of sound approximation of mathematical structures, Cousot developed this influential technique in formal methods together with his wife Radhia in 1975. In the 2000s, he worked...

Chandu Visweswariah

Pioneer in circuit analysis and optimization and inventor of statistical timing, Visweswariah developed techniques used in every IBM chip design—including formal circuit tuning and gate-level timing sign-off. These fundamental contributions improved performance,...

Donald Lester Bitzer

Co-inventor of the Plasma Display and sometimes called the "father of PLATO" (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operations), the first generalized computer-assisted instruction system, Bitzer was an American electrical engineer and computer...

Paul A. Vixie

Author of the standard UNIX system programs SENDS, proxynet, rtty, and Vixie cron, Vixie is an American Internet pioneer and well-known Unix software author who attended George Washington High School in San...

Bob Fabry

Founder of the Computer Systems Research Group (CSRG) at UC Berkeley, Fabry established the group in the EECS Department in 1979. The BSD software developed at CSRG helped spawn the Open Source...

Alexander Ivanovich Mikhailov

Co-founder of the Vserosiisky Institut Nauchnoi I Tekhnicheskoy Informatsii (VINITI) and co-author of the concept of Informatics, Mikhailov was a pioneering figure in the study and dissemination of scientific information. He graduated...

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...

Dorr Eugene Felt

Inventor of the Comptometer, the first commercially successful key-driven mechanical calculator, Felt built his first prototype during the US Thanksgiving holidays of 1884. Because of his limited amount of money, he used...

Shoichiro Yoshida

Co-developer of advanced steppers and scanners, high-precision instruments used in the complex process of making integrated circuits, Yoshida has been a pivotal figure in IC lithography innovation. A Japanese engineer born in...

Jay Wright Forrester

Founder of System Dynamics, Forrester was also a pioneer computer engineer and systems scientist whose invention of magnetic core memory transformed computing. Forrester was born on July 14, 1918, on a cattle ranch...

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...

William R. Hoover

Chairman and President of Computer Sciences Corporation from 1975 to 1994, Hoover built CSC into one of the largest and most influential technology companies in Southern California. CSC, based in El Segundo,...

Jeffrey (Jeff) Scott Raikes

Senior executive at Microsoft and CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Raikes is credited with driving much of Microsoft's early work in business applications. He joined Microsoft in 1981 as...

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...

Ding Wen Lim

Deemed the world's youngest iPhone developer at age 9, Lim is a programmer from Singapore responsible for the app Doodle Kids. Born September 21, 1999, he was thrust into the media spotlight...

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...

Henry Edward Roberts

Designer of the first commercially successful personal computer, Roberts transformed computing in 1975. He founded Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) in 1970 to sell electronics kits to model rocketry hobbyists, but...

Edmund Melson Clarke, Jr.

Developer of model checking, Clarke pioneered a method for formally verifying hardware and software designs. In his Ph.D. thesis he proved that certain programming language control structures did not have good Hoare...

Kevin Mitnick

One of the most controversial and most-wanted computer hackers in United States history, Mitnick was convicted of various computer- and communications-related crimes in the late 20th century. Following his release, Mitnick went on...

Reshma Saujani

Founder of Girls Who Code, a nonprofit working to increase the number of women in computer science and close the gender employment gap in that field, Saujani built a career spanning law,...