Michael S. Tomczyk

Best known for his role in the development and marketing of the Commodore VIC-20, the first microcomputer to sell one million units, Tomczyk is also recognized as an early pioneer in telecomputing....

Benoît B. Mandelbrot

Discoverer of the Mandelbrot set of intricate, never-ending fractal shapes — said to be "one of the most astonishing discoveries in the entire history of mathematics" — Mandelbrot also developed a "theory...

Neil James Alexander Sloane

Contributor to the fields of combinatorics, error-correction coding, and sphere packing, Sloane's research has ranged far and wide, including coding theory, sphere packing, lattices and quadratic forms, packing lines, and planes, spherical...

Harvey G. Cragon

Designer and builder of the first digital computer with Integrated Circuits (IC) and the first TTL computer, Cragon is recognized as a pioneering American computer engineer. Born in Ruston, Louisiana, he studied...

Harm Peter Hofstee

Chief architect of the synergistic processor elements in the Cell Broadband Engine, Hofstee is known for his work on the processor behind the Sony PlayStation 3 and the Roadrunner supercomputer that first...

Jaishankar (Jai) Moothedath Menon

Developer of RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) storage technology, Menon was the driving force for advancing RAID storage systems as the high-performance, high-reliability solution for server-based computers. He served as Vice...

Leslie Berlin

Author and noted IT historian, Berlin has served as Project Historian for the Silicon Valley Archives at Stanford University. She wrote *The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of...

Paul E. Ceruzzi

Noted IT historian, author, and curator, Ceruzzi has served as Curator of Aerospace Electronics and Computing at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. He received a BA from...

Rolf William Landauer

A significant contributor in diverse areas of the thermodynamics of information processing, condensed matter physics, and the conductivity of disordered media, Landauer was a German-American physicist who made important contributions across these...

Neil Bartlett

Key contributor to IBM's risk analytics business, Bartlett has served as an IBM Fellow, Chief Technology Officer, and Head of Development for the Risk Analytics division of IBM. His innovative work in...

John T. Draper

Author of EasyWriter, the first word processor for the Apple II, Draper is also recognized as a famous former hacker. While Draper was driving around his Volkswagen Microbus to test a pirate radio...

Joseph (J. J.) John Thomson

Discoverer of the electron and isotopes, and inventor of the mass spectrometer, Thomson was a British physicist and Nobel laureate born in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, England. His early education took place in...

Joseph Marie Jacquard

Inventor of the earliest programmable loom, Jacquard transformed weaving with his automatic patterned-silk loom, though his early inventions operated poorly and were largely unsuccessful. In 1801, Jacquard exhibited his invention at the industrial...

Léon Bollée

Inventor of the first calculating machine, Bollée began work in 1887 on three calculating machines: the Direct Multiplier, the Calculating Board, and the Arithmographe. Bollée's Multiplier was the second successful direct-multiplying calculator...

Oliver Selfridge

An innovator in early computer science and artificial intelligence, Selfridge helped shape the foundations of machine learning and AI. Credited with coining the term "intelligent agents" for software programs capable of observing and...

Krishnendu (Krish) Chakrabarty

Pioneer researcher on the design automation and testing of complex chips with application to microfluidic biochips, Chakrabarty has served as a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Duke University in Durham,...

Hartmut Esslinger

Creator of a design strategy that transformed Apple from a "Silicon Valley Start-Up" into a global brand, Esslinger is a German-American industrial designer and inventor known for co-founding Frogdesign, a global innovation...

Sam Harrell

Co-founder of SEMATECH, the partnership between the U.S. government and U.S.-based semiconductor manufacturers to regain competitiveness for the U.S. semiconductor industry, Harrell is a leading specialist in semiconductor and international trade and...

Christopher Latham Sholes

Inventor of the QWERTY keyboard and one of the first practical typewriters, Sholes transformed written communication. Born in Mooresburg, Pennsylvania, he moved to nearby Danville as a teenager, where he worked as...

Conrad (Conny) Palm

Contributor to teletraffic engineering and queueing theory, Palm also led the project that developed the first Swedish computer, the BARK. He enrolled at the School of Electrical Engineering at the Royal Institute...