In it, she made innovative use of graph theory to encode program contents. This paper - published internally by IBM while was she was working on an experimental compiler for the company’s Advanced Computing System (ACS-1) project - laid the conceptual basis for systematic evaluation and improvement of computer programs. While at IBM, Allen published many seminal papers, one of the most important of which was her classic 1966 paper, “Program Optimization”. She retired from IBM in 2002, but still holds the title of IBM Fellow Emerita. Apart from brief teaching stints at NYU and Stanford, she spent her entire career at IBM. She earned a master’s degree in mathematics from the University of Michigan in 1957. Algorithmic Number Theory, co-edited with Ming-Deh Huang (Springer, 1994)Ĭompilers, Program optimization, Parallel computingĪllen was born in the town of Peru, in upstate New York, in 1932.Primality Testing and Abelian Varieties Over Finite Fields, co-authored with Ming-Deh Huang (Springer, 1992).Selected Books | FIND BOOKS BY LEONARD M. Adleman also developed the theoretical foundations for the possible use of the DNA molecule as a means of doing complex calculations, earning him the sobriquet “Father of DNA Computing.” In addition, he is often credited with coining the term “computer virus.” Adleman won the A.M. Rivest and Adi Shamir (for both of whom, see below), to the RSA algorithm, which was one of the first public-key cryptosystems, and which remains in wide use to this day for the encryption of data transmission. He is currently Distinguished Professor of Computer Science and holds the Henry Salvatori Chair in Computer Science in the Viterbi School of Engineering at the University of Southern California.Īdleman is best known for his contribution, together with Ronald L.
in electrical engineering and computer sciences (EECS) from UC-Berkeley in 1976. AdlemanĬomputational Complexity Theory, CryptographyĪdleman was born in San Francisco, California, in 1945. 50 Highly Influential Computer Scientists Leonard M. Please note that our list is in alphabetical order. Turing Award bestowed every year since 1966 by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) - which is widely regarded as the highest award for achievement in the field of computer science.Īnd now for the main event. Note that the majority of the individuals on our main list below are winners of the prize named after Turing - the A.M. Timeline of the Theory of Computation and Electronic Digital Computers.Timeline of the Consumer Computer Revolution.For that reason, we are also providing below a brief timeline of the breakthroughs of the first generation of thinkers who made major contributions to the development of the electronic digital computer. However, a number of the most important of those folks are now dead, and our list includes living people only. They are the ones who did most of the scientific spadework that laid the foundations for the world we live in today.
With the help of we have created the list below of 50 of the mathematicians, logicians, and computer scientists. That thought led us on to do some digging.
How many of us have any idea how all these gadgets really work? Who made the conceptual breakthroughs that prepared the ground for the personal computer revolution, and who carried anything to fruition? Given its importance, we figured it was high time that we turned our attention to the men and women behind it all - to put names and faces to the esoteric acronyms and the machinery. But for those old enough to remember Woodstock, this is historical change on steroids.Īlmost everybody nowadays uses this technology in at least some of its myriad forms. They have grown up in sync with the rhythm of the regular appearance of new technological marvels, and do not know anything different. Though the feverish pace of pioneering technological innovation has slowed over the past decade or so, the reliability, accessibility, and affordability of the new technologies have continued to increase by orders of magnitude.įor people born in the twenty-first century, this history may seem completely unsurprising. The past decade has seen the new technologies insinuate themselves into every nook and cranny of our daily lives.