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...

Martin Wiberg

Inventor of a machine that could print logarithmic tables, Wiberg is known as a computer pioneer for his 1875 invention of a device the size of a sewing machine. The tables were...

Albert W. Tucker

Developer of the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker conditions, a basic result in non-linear programming, Tucker was a Canadian-born American mathematician who also made important contributions in topology and game theory. Born in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada,...

Francis Bacon

Considered the father of the scientific method and of empiricism, Bacon transformed natural philosophy and the theory of knowledge. He served both as Attorney General and Lord Chancellor of England. Although his...

Charles Xavier Thomas

Known for designing and patenting the first mechanical calculator, Thomas introduced the Arithmometer in 1820, though more than thirty years passed before its true commercialization in 1852, as he spent that intervening...

Paul Marie Ghislain Otlet

Considered one of the fathers of information science, Otlet was an author, entrepreneur, visionary, lawyer, and peace activist whose writings have sometimes been called prescient of the current World Wide Web. He...

Helmut Theodor Schreyer

Co-developer of the Z3, one of the first computers, Schreyer also developed an electrical circuit to convert decimal to binary numbers. He was a German inventor and the son of the minister...

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...

Nikola Tesla

A major contributor to the birth of commercial electricity and revolutionary developer in the field of electromagnetism, Tesla was an inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer who is best known for his...

Marian Adam Rejewski

Solver of the plugboard-equipped Enigma machine, the main cipher device used by Germany, Rejewski was a Polish mathematician and cryptologist who accomplished this feat in 1932. His success, along with his colleagues...

Herbert Franz Mataré

Co-developer of the first functional "European" transistor, Mataré made his landmark contribution alongside Heinrich Welker in the vicinity of Paris in 1948, at the same time and independently from the Bell Labs...

James Waddell Alexander II

Founder of cohomology theory, Alexander was also a pioneer in algebraic topology who contributed to the beginnings of knot theory by defining the first of the polynomial knot invariants. He was an American...

Arnt Eliassen

A pioneer in the use of numerical analysis and computers for weather forecasting, Eliassen was a Norwegian meteorologist who conducted early pioneer work at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New...

Solomon Lefschetz

Developer of the Lefschetz fixed point theorem, now a basic result of topology, Lefschetz did fundamental work on algebraic topology, its applications to algebraic geometry, and the theory of non-linear ordinary differential...

Charles Sanders Peirce

As early as 1886, Peirce saw that logical operations could be carried out by electrical switching circuits, the same idea that was used decades later to produce digital computers. An American philosopher,...

Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander, CMG, CBE

One of the key workers on breaking the Enigma machine, Alexander made vital contributions to British codebreaking during World War II. An Irish-born British cryptanalyst, chess player, and chess writer, he was...

Philip Stuart Milner-Barry

One of four leading codebreakers at Bletchley Park to petition Prime Minister Winston Churchill directly for more resources for their work, Milner-Barry was also a British chess player, chess writer, and civil...

Arnold Meyer Spielberg

Inventor of the first computer-controlled point-of-sale cash register, Spielberg is recognized as a pioneer in the computer industry, credited with a number of breakthroughs during his professional career, among them early guidance...

Charles Babbage

Designer of the first mathematical computer, Babbage was an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor, and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer. Parts of his uncompleted mechanisms are on display...

Arthur Scherbius

Inventor of the cryptographic machine Enigma, Scherbius founded the company to manufacture it and transformed the history of wartime communications. He was born in Frankfurt am Main and studied electricity at the...