John Napier

Renowned as the discoverer of the logarithm and inventor of "Napier's bones," Napier was a Scottish mathematician, physicist, astronomer, and astrologer, and also the 8th Laird of Merchiston. He was the son...

Mary Allen Wilkes

Known for her work with the LINC computer, now recognized by many as the world's first personal computer, Wilkes contributed to this landmark machine as a programmer and logic designer. She later...

Manuel Blum

Recipient of the 1995 Turing Award for his contributions to the foundations of computational complexity theory and its application to cryptography and program checking, Blum is a computer scientist whose work has...

Milo S. Medin

Helping to deliver the first large-scale residential broadband access service in partnership with major cable operators, Medin has been part of the Internet development community for more than 25 years. He has...

John (Jack) F. Waters

One of the original key contributors who designed and built MCI's initial Internet service, Waters has served as Chief Technology Officer for Level 3 Communications, Inc., a Denver-based provider of a range...

T. Capers Jones

Associated with the function point model of cost estimation, Jones is a specialist in software engineering methodologies. He has also collected data on software quality, software risks, and software best practices. He...

Evelyn Boyd Granville

Part of the IBM team responsible for formulating orbit computations and computer procedures for NASA's Projects Vanguard and Mercury, Granville was also one of the first African-American women to receive a Ph.D....

Frederic Calland Williams

Pioneer of the first stored-program digital computer and inventor of the Williams–Kilburn tube memory device, Williams transformed the foundations of modern computing. In 1946, he was appointed as head of the Electrical...

Audrey Tang

A free software programmer as well as a politician, Tang is described as one of the "ten greatest Taiwanese computing personalities." They are a leader of the Haskell and Perl programming language...

Martin Richards

Creator of the BCPL programming language, Richards is a computer scientist whose work has had lasting influence on modern programming. In 1959 he came to Cambridge to read Mathematics, followed by the...

Heinz Nixdorf

German computer entrepreneur, Nixdorf founded and led Nixdorf Computer AG. He developed and marketed low-end commercial computers mainly within Europe between 1965 and 1985. He had production facilities in Germany, Ireland, Spain,...

Gianello Toriano (aka Giovan)

Inventor of the Cristalino astronomical clock and a remarkably lifelike mandolin-playing lady automaton, Toriano was an Italo-Spanish inventor, clockmaker, engineer and mathematician born in Cremona, in northern Italy around 1500. His skill...

David Elliott Bell

Co-developer of the highly influential Bell-LaPadula security model, Bell is a mathematician and computer security pioneer. His management experience has ranged from line management up to executive and Board of Directors responsibilities....

Seymour Roger Cray

Sometimes called "the father of supercomputing," Cray was a U.S. electrical engineer and supercomputer architect who designed a series of computers that were the fastest in the world for decades, and founded...

Barbara Liskov

A pioneer in object-oriented programming, Liskov's work in programming methodology has affected all aspects of modern computing, including programming languages, object-oriented programming, and software robustness to hacking. She designed CLU, an object-oriented...

Samuel (Sam) Wyly

Co-founder of several computer businesses, including Datran, which began construction of a nationwide system of microwave towers to transmit data among 27 American cities, Wyly is an American entrepreneur, businessman, and philanthropist....

Sergy Brin

Co-founder of Google, Inc., the world's largest Internet company based on its search engine and online advertising technology, Brin built the company alongside Larry Page. Together with Page, they are often referred...

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...

Victor (Vic) Dale Poor

Co-creator of the architecture that was ultimately implemented in the first successful computer microprocessor, the Intel 8008, Poor was an engineer whose designs of hardware and software led to many innovations. At...

Stephen Wolff

Credited with turning the Internet from a government project into something of scholarly and commercial interest for the rest of the world, Wolff is sometimes called one of the many fathers of...