Louis Pouzin

Invented the datagram and designed the first packet communications network, CYCLADES, Pouzin also created the first forms of command-line interface. His work was broadly used by Robert Kahn, Vinton Cerf, and many...

John (Jack) Mason Harker

Pioneer of the IBM 350 RAMAC disk storage unit — the world's first hard disk drive — Harker started as a member of the original team that developed the first disk storage...

Morton M. Astrahan

Developer of the SAGE air-defense computer and a pioneer in relational database systems, Astrahan joined IBM in 1949 and spent his entire professional career there—first at the Endicott Laboratory and then later...

W. (Rick) Richards Adrion

Founder of the Applied Computing Systems Institute of Massachusetts, Adrion has served as a Professor of Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He served as PI for an NSF REU Site,...

Watts S. Humphrey

Father of Software Quality who headed the IBM software team that introduced the first software license, Humphrey was awarded the National Medal of Technology for his contributions to software engineering. He founded...

Reona (Leo) Esaki

Inventor of the Esaki tunnel diode, the first quantum electron device, Esaki shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 with Ivar Giaever and Brian David Josephson for his discovery of the...

Charles M. Herzfeld

Director of DARPA who personally authorized the creation of the ARPANET, the predecessor of the Internet, Herzfeld was an American scientist and scientific manager, particularly for the US Government, best known for...

Giovanni Poleni

Builder of the first pinwheel design calculating clock, Poleni was a pioneer of mechanical computation. Made of wood, his calculating clock was built in 1709; he destroyed it after hearing that Antonius...

Paul Tseng

The first to establish the convergence of the affine scaling algorithm for linear programming in the presence of degeneracy, Tseng was recognized by his peers to be one of the leading optimization...

Gordon Stanley Brown

Involved in the development of Whirlwind, the first all-digital computer, Brown also originated many of the concepts behind automatic-feedback control systems and the numerical control of machine tools. He was born in...

Douglas Donald Troxel

Developer of COMPAREX, an industry-standard mainframe product, Troxel founded SERENA Consulting in 1980 and grew it into a publicly traded software company without venture capital. Raised on a farm near Lake City, Iowa,...

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...

John Buxton

Pioneer of computer simulation, Buxton gained world renown for his fundamental scientific contributions to computer simulation, programming language design, and software implementation technology. He was founding professor of computer science at both...

Phillip A. Griffiths

Former Director of the Institute for Advanced Study (1991–2003), Griffiths is an American mathematician known for his work in the field of geometry, and in particular for the complex manifold approach to...

Arnold A. Cohen

Developer of selectively alterable digital storage on magnetic drums, Cohen held a patent that proved basic to the field. Born in Duluth, MN, he was a renowned physicist noted for his significant...

David J. Kuck

Developer of the Parafrase compiler system (1977), the first testbed for automatic vectorization and related program transformations, Kuck is one of the most influential figures in parallel computing. His influence spans a...

Safiya Umoja Noble

Author of the landmark 2018 book "Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism," Noble brought rigorous academic scrutiny to the ways search engine algorithms can perpetuate racism and discrimination. She became...

Saul Amarel

Pioneer in Artificial Intelligence, Amarel was best known for his groundbreaking work in AI methodologies applied to scientific inquiry and engineering practice. He also had a distinguished career as a scientist, engineer,...

Alexander Graham Bell

Inventor of the first practical telephone, Bell was also an eminent scientist, engineer, and innovator whose later work made groundbreaking contributions to optical telecommunications, hydrofoils, and aeronautics. Bell's father, grandfather, and brother had...

Susan Estrada

Founder of CERFnet, one of the original regional IP networks, Estrada is recognized as an Internet pioneer and named a "thinking nerd" by colleagues, with a deep interest in emerging broadband technologies...