Michael Shrayer

Inventor of the Electric Pencil, the first word processor for home computers, Shrayer launched an unexpected and lucrative new business from what began as a personal project. In 1975, Shrayer was "semi-retired" from...

David A. Thompson

Pioneer in the design and development of thin film magnetic head technology for use in high-density data storage, Thompson has served as Director of the Advanced Magnetic Recording Laboratory at IBM Almaden...

Nestor Burtnyk

Father of the multimillion-dollar computer animation industry, Burtnyk pioneered animation technology that transformed the field. Born in Ethelbert, Manitoba to Ukrainian immigrants, he began Canada's first major computer graphics research project in...

Nagui Halim

Team leader who developed System S—a computing system able to manage and analyze massive volumes of continuous streams of data—Halim was named an IBM Fellow in 2011, the highest honor a scientist,...

Marissa Ann Mayer

CEO of Yahoo and early Google executive, Mayer served as Vice President of Search Product and User Experience at Google, acting as a gatekeeper for their product release process, determining when or...

Brian Wilson Kernighan

Co-author of the first book on the C programming language and programmer of well-known Unix utilities such as ditroff and cron, Kernighan worked at Bell Labs alongside Unix creators Ken Thompson and...

Enrico Fermi

Inventor of the FERMIAC, an analog computer that used the Monte Carlo Method to study neutron transport through fissionable materials, Fermi was an Italian-born, naturalized American physicist particularly known for his work...

John W. Brackett

Co-founder of SofTech, a Boston-based software company, Brackett managed the company's software development projects for large commercial and government clients as Vice President of Software Production. Brackett received his B.S. degree from MIT...

Robert Stein

Producer of the first interactive computer discs for CD-ROM, Stein is considered a visionary and innovator in the world of communication and multimedia. Born and raised in New York City, Stein attended...

Nick D'Aloisio

Designer of Summly — a program aimed to solve perceived problems with the way news articles are presented on smartphones — D'Aloisio is a British-Australian entrepreneur, computer programmer, and designer who created...

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....

Ravi Arimilli

Chief Architect largely responsible for the development of the IBM POWER5, Arimilli has been named an IBM Fellow, the company's highest technical honor, in May 2001. One of the most prolific inventors...

Kerrie L. Holley

Co-patent owner of the computer industry's first SOA method and SOA maturity model, Holley is an IBM Fellow, software architect, author, researcher, consultant, and inventor recognized internationally for his innovative work in...

Valentin Fyodorovich Turchin

Developer of the Refal programming language, the theory of metasystem transitions, and the notion of supercompilation, Turchin made foundational contributions to computer science and cybernetics. The philosophical core of Turchin's scientific work was...

Tyrone Grandison

Leader of the IBM team that pioneered research in Relational Database Privacy, Grandison demonstrated that privacy protection was possible at the database level and that both security and privacy controls can exist...

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...

Charles (Chuck) H. House

A Silicon Valley legend cited by the Smithsonian and the Computer History Museum as one of the top 200 Computer Wizards of America, House participated in creating twelve product lines at Hewlett-Packard...

Peter James Denning

Pioneer of virtual memory systems and co-founder of CSNET, Denning is best known for discovering the locality principle and designing the working set model for program behavior. He took an early interest in...

Marsha J. Berger

Pioneer of adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) and Cartesian mesh finite difference methods for numerical PDEs, Berger's block-structured AMR approach, beginning with her thesis, is now considered one of the seminal ideas in...

David Lorge Parnas

Originator of the concept of information hiding in modular programming, Parnas is a Canadian early pioneer of software engineering whose work became a foundational element of object-oriented programming. He has also been...