Allessandro Volta

Inventor of the battery in 1800 and a remotely operated pistol that was a significant forerunner of the telegraph, Volta transformed the understanding of electricity. He was born in Como, Italy, and taught...

George Barnard Grant

One of the few Americans to make a significant contribution to mechanical computation prior to the end of the nineteenth century, Grant improved on the Difference Machine calculator and is recognized as...

Martin David Davis

Known for his work on Hilbert's tenth problem and as co-inventor of the Davis-Putnam and DPLL algorithms, Davis is an American mathematician. Born in New York City, he grew up in the...

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...

Alexander Bain

Inventor of the electric clock and pioneer of the telegraph, Bain transformed early communications technology. His first patent was dated January 11, 1841, and was in the names of John Barwise, chronometer...

David Hilbert

One of the founders of proof theory and mathematical logic, Hilbert's work laid the basis for recursion theory and later theoretical computer science. He was recognized as one of the most influential...

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...

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...

Anthony E. Siegman

Major contributor in the area of unstable resonators, lasers, and optics, Siegman was an electrical engineer and educator whose work on microwave masers and parametric devices evolved into a distinguished research and...

Samuel Finley Breese Morse

Co-inventor of Morse code and contributor to the invention of a single-wire telegraph system, Morse was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts. After attending Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, he went on to Yale...

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...

Irma M. Wyman

The first woman to become Vice President of Honeywell, Inc., Wyman was also the first female CIO of Honeywell and a Systems Thinking tutor (the process of understanding how things influence one...

Warren Weaver

Writer of the memorandum "Translation" (July 1949), said to be probably the single most influential publication in the early days of machine translation, Weaver was an American scientist, mathematician, and science administrator...

Clifford Hugh Dowker

Developer of the Dowker notation, a simple way of describing knots suitable for computers, Dowker was a topologist also known for his contributions in point-set topology, category theory, sheaf theory, and knot...

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...

Nils Aall Barricelli

Pioneering in artificial life research, Barricelli conducted early computer-assisted experiments in symbiogenesis and evolution that are considered foundational to the field. Being independently wealthy, he held an unpaid residency at the Institute...

Charles Proteus Steinmetz

Fostering the development of alternating current that made possible the expansion of the electric power industry in the United States, Steinmetz was a mathematician and electrical engineer who formulated mathematical theories for...

Michael Woodger

Co-author of the ALGOL 60 report, a milestone in the history of programming languages, Woodger has been a British computer scientist and Emeritus Professor at the School of Computing Science, Newcastle University,...

Clifford Ambrose Truesdell III

Developer of the mathematical underpinnings of continuum mechanics, Truesdell transformed the study of elasticity, fluid dynamics, and related fields through work that began in the 1960s and continued for the rest of...

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...