John Matthew Vlissides

Co-author, as one of the "Gang of Four", of the influential software engineering textbook Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software, Vlissides referred to himself as "#4 of the Gang of Four...

Joyce K. Reynolds

Co-developer of protocols underlying the Internet, Reynolds was most notably the author or co-author of the RFCs introducing and specifying the Telnet protocol. She was active in the development of the protocols underlying...

Thomas J. Misa

Noted IT historian and director of the Charles Babbage Institute (CBI), Misa specializes in the interactions of technology and modern culture. His undergraduate degree was from M.I.T. (1981) and his Ph.D. from...

Louis Pouzin

Invented the datagram and designed the first packet communications network, CYCLADES, Pouzin also created the first forms of command-line interface. His work was broadly used by Robert Kahn, Vinton Cerf, and many...

Stanley Gill

Co-inventor of the first computer subroutine, Gill was a British computer scientist who shared that achievement with Maurice Wilkes and David Wheeler. Gill was born in Worthing, West Sussex, England, educated at...

Gertrude Blanch

Pioneering figure in numerical analysis and computation and one of the founders of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Blanch was born Gittel Kaimowitz in Kolno, Russia (now Kolno, Poland), arrived in...

Priit Kasesalu

Co-developer of Skype and head programmer for Kazaa Media Desktop, Kasesalu is a pioneering Estonian software developer. In 1986, he began his career as a programmer for a local hardware manufacturer with...

Tadashi Watanabe

Chief designer of SX-2, the first supercomputer introduced by NEC in 1983, which boasted the world's fastest speed at that time, Watanabe is a Japanese computer engineer widely recognized as a pioneering...

Peter A. Franaszek

Known for his research in fragmentation-reduction algorithms, network theory, and magnetic recording, Franaszek has been a researcher at the IBM Research Division, Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York. Dr....

Kay Brossard Magleby

Architect of HP's first minicomputer and leader of the team that led HP into the computer industry, Magleby was born in Rigby, Idaho and raised in Pocatello, where he graduated from Pocatello...

Michael T. Goodrich

Pioneer and research leader on efficient parallel and distributed solutions, Goodrich has served as a Chancellor's Professor and chair of the Department of Computer Science of the Donald Bren School of Information...

John C. Freeman

Co-developer of numerical models used in making the first successful computer weather forecasts, Freeman is recognized as a pioneer whose work made today's computer models for weather prediction possible. A native Houstonian and...

Kenneth (Ken) R. Jacobs

Known as "Dr. DBA" to thousands of Oracle database administrators, Jacobs has been a prominent spokesperson for Oracle and an advocate inside the company for customers' interests. Jacobs joined Oracle in July 1981...

Michael James Lighthill

Pioneer in aeroacoustics and developer of television and communications satellites, Lighthill was a British applied mathematician known for his pioneering work in fluid dynamics. He worked at the National Physical Laboratory, Trinity...

Ramon Verea

Inventor of the first calculating machine to use direct multiplication instead of employing multiple rounds of a crank, Verea was a Spanish inventor who studied in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, and emigrated...

Philip Don Estridge

Known as "the father of the IBM PC," Estridge led development of the original IBM Personal Computer. His decisions dramatically changed the computer industry, resulting in a vast increase in the number...

Ralph C. Merkle

Co-inventor of public key cryptography, Merkle is a researcher who also works as a speaker on molecular nanotechnology and cryonics. He appeared as a character in the science fiction novel *The Diamond...

Richard Matthew Stallman

Founder of the GNU Project to create a free Unix-like operating system, Stallman also launched the free software movement and was the main author of the GNU General Public License for open...

Van Jacobson

One of the primary contributors to the TCP/IP protocol stack — the technological foundation of today's Internet — Jacobson is renowned for his pioneering achievements in network performance and scaling. He joined...

Kenneth (Ken) H. Perlin

Developer of Perlin noise and innovative computer-user interfaces such as zooming user interfaces, Perlin is one of the most respected figures in the field of computer graphics for his work both in...