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...

Reynold (Ray) B. Johnson

Developer of the first manufactured hard disk drive, Johnson began his career as a teacher after graduating from the University of Minnesota in 1929, and invented an electronic test scoring machine, for...

Alan Mathison Turing

The mathematical logician Alan Mathison Turing OBE (1912-1954) contributed to logic, mathematics, cryptanalysis, philosophy, mathematical biology, and formatively to computer science, Artificial Intelligence, cognitive science, and the computational study of biological growth. Turing...

Georgy Adelson-Velsky

Co-inventor of the AVL tree and head developer of the Kaissa chess computer, Adelson-Velsky made foundational contributions to both computer science and computer chess. In 1962, Georgy and E.M. Landis published a...

Joan L. Mitchell

A key contributor to the JPEG image compression algorithm and MPEG video standards, Mitchell became an IBM Fellow in 2001. Working at IBM with William B. Pennebaker, she helped fine-tune the JPEG...

Isaac Newton

Stating the three universal laws of motion that enabled many of the advances of the Industrial Revolution and are still the underpinnings of the non-relativistic technologies of the modern world, Newton also...

Norman Abramson

Developer of the ALOHAnet system for wireless computer communication and inventor of the first random access protocol, Abramson was an American engineer and computer scientist. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and...

Alexander L'vovich Brudno

Best known for fully describing the alpha-beta (α-β) search algorithm, Brudno was a Russian Jewish computer scientist who lived in Israel from 1991. He developed the "mathematics/machine interface" for the M-2 computer...

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...

James T. Pendergrass

Instrumental in establishing the naval cryptologic service's pioneering program to develop electronic digital computers, Pendergrass shaped the early development of computing in the U.S. Navy. Born in Bala Cynwyd, PA, he earned...

Yevgeny Valentinovich Kaspersky

Co-founder of Kaspersky Lab, producer of antivirus software and computer security products, Kaspersky is recognized as a leading figure in information security. Kaspersky graduated from the Institute of Cryptography, Telecommunications and Computer Science,...

Vannevar Bush

The first presidential science advisor, Bush was an American engineer and science administrator known for his work on analog computing, his political role in the development of the atomic bomb as a...

Karl Ferdinand Braun

Inventor of the cathode-ray tube, Braun built the first such device in 1897 — known as the "Braun Tube" in German-speaking countries. During the development of radio, he also worked on wireless...

Philip (Phil) R. Zimmermann, Jr.

The creator of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), the most widely used email encryption software in the world, Zimmermann is also known for his work in VoIP encryption protocols, notably ZRTP and Zfone....

William (Bill) L. Schrader

Co-founder of the world's first commercial Internet Service Provider, Schrader partnered with Martin L. Schoffstall to launch PSINet in 1989, initially funding the company using credit cards and by selling his family...

Andrew F. Kay

Inventor of the digital voltmeter, Kay created an instrument used for measuring electrical potential difference between two points in an electric circuit. He was President and CEO of Kaypro Computers, a personal...

Herb Sutter

A prominent C++ expert, Sutter is also a book author and a columnist for Dr. Dobb's Journal. He joined Microsoft in 2002 as a platform evangelist for Visual C++ .NET, rising to...

Edith Clarke

Pioneer of electrical engineering and the inventor of the Clarke calculator, Clarke broke barriers as the first woman to earn an M.S. in electrical engineering from MIT. Clarke studied mathematics and astronomy at...

Jerome Svigals

One of the world's first digital programmers, Svigals worked on developing the first electronic computer as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1950. Born in 1926 in the Bronx, New York,...

Kevin Warwick

Best known for his studies on direct interfaces between computer systems and the human nervous system, Warwick is a British scientist and professor of cybernetics whose research also spans the field of...