Paul Castrucci

Leader of the team that invented and developed a major paradigm shift in computer storage, Castrucci's work set the stage for current computer memory technology. Born in St. Johnsville, New York on the...

Stanley (Stan) T. Myers

Former President and CEO of SEMI (Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International), Myers served in that role from 1996 until stepping back from executive leadership in 2011. On January 11, 2012, he was...

Shigeru Miyamoto

Lead game designer for Nintendo since its inception in 1974, Miyamoto was born and raised in the Kyoto Prefecture, where the natural surroundings inspired much of his later work. He is mainly...

Oliver William Standingford

Responsible for the implementation of LEO I, the first computer used for commercial business applications, Standingford was a senior manager at J. Lyons and Co. who oversaw its procurement alongside Raymond Thompson. Born...

Wei Yen

Major contributor to the Cydra-5 mini-supercomputer, Yen is a software developer and entrepreneur who has been involved with several companies, including as chairman and founder of AiLive. He and his brother David...

Jaron Zepel Lanier

Pioneer of virtual reality, Lanier led the team in the late 1980s that developed the first implementations of multi-person virtual worlds using head-mounted displays. In mid-1997, he became a founding member of...

James (Jim) A. Kahle

Key designer for the RIOS processor that launched the RS/6000 family of workstations and servers, Kahle has also served as Chief Architect and Director of Technology at the Center for Cell Technology...

Hung Q. Le

Leader of the development of several microprocessor products that enabled IBM to be the leader in the server market, Le holds more than 80 patents in the field of microprocessor design and...

John Sall

Co-developer of the SAS System and co-founder of SAS Institute Inc., Sall has made extensive programming contributions in econometrics, time series, and matrix algebra. Born in Rockford, Illinois, he is an American...

Thomas (Tommy) Harold Flowers

Designer of Colossus, the first programmable electronic computer, Flowers made one of the most significant contributions to wartime codebreaking. His first contact with the wartime codebreaking effort came when he was asked...

Theodor (Ted) Holm Nelson

Inventor of hypertext and hypermedia, Nelson coined both terms in 1963 and published them in 1965. An American sociologist, philosopher, and pioneer of information technology, he is also credited with the first...

Galileo Galilei

Called "the Father of Modern Science," Galilei played a major role in the Scientific Revolution, including landmark improvements to the telescope and the invention of an improved military compass. He was born...

Alan Emtage

Alan Emtage conceived and implemented the first version of Archie, a pre-Web internet search engine for locating material in public FTP archives.

Nils Aall Barricelli

Pioneering in artificial life research, Barricelli conducted early computer-assisted experiments in symbiogenesis and evolution that are considered foundational to the field. Being independently wealthy, he held an unpaid residency at the Institute...

John Edward Warnock

Co-founder of Adobe Systems Inc., Warnock pioneered the development of graphics, publishing, Web, and electronic document technologies that revolutionized the field of publishing and visual communications. He served as President of Adobe...

Matthew J. Szulik

Former Chairman of Red Hat, Szulik led several other technology companies, including Interleaf and MapInfo, for more than 20 years. He has also held the titles of chief executive officer and president...

Jay W. Lathrop

Instrumental in the development of photolithography — critical in the first efforts to produce semiconductor integrated circuits — Lathrop is recognized as a pioneering figure in microminiaturization of solid-state circuits. Born in Bangor,...

Johann Wolfgang Ritter von Kempelen

Famous for constructing The Turk, a chess-playing automaton later revealed to be a hoax, Kempelen was also a Hungarian author and inventor with Irish ancestors, born in Pressburg, Kingdom of Hungary, Habsburg...

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,...

William Gordon Welchman

One of four signatories to an influential letter delivered personally to Winston Churchill in October 1941 asking for more resources for the code-breaking work at Bletchley Park, and teacher of the first...