Joan L. Mitchell

A key contributor to the JPEG image compression algorithm and MPEG video standards, Mitchell became an IBM Fellow in 2001. Working at IBM with William B. Pennebaker, she helped fine-tune the JPEG...

Monte M. Toole

Builder of the device testing lab at Fairchild Semiconductor, Toole went on to found Novellus Surface Integrity Group (aka GaSonics International Corporation) in March 1971, serving as its Chairman until April 1998,...

Peter James Denning

Pioneer of virtual memory systems and co-founder of CSNET, Denning is best known for discovering the locality principle and designing the working set model for program behavior. He took an early interest in...

Michael (Mike) A. McNeilly

Holder of the first patent for infrared deposition of silicon and other materials — a breakthrough that revolutionized deposition quality and produced slip-free, dislocation-free epi — McNeilly is a Silicon Valley pioneer...

Aaron Marcus

Pioneer in computer-based design, Marcus founded Aaron Marcus and Associates, Inc. (AM+A) in 1982, one of the first independent, computer-based design firms in the world. An American user-interface and information-visualization designer, as well...

Michael (Mike) J. Karels

Key contributor to the history of BSD UNIX, Karels was an American software engineer who graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a Bachelor of Science in Microbiology. He went on...

Hewitt D. Crane

Developer of an eye-movement tracking device and pen-input device for computers, Crane was an American engineer best known for his pioneering work at SRI International on ERMA (Electronic Recording Machine, Accounting), for...

Robert (Bob) Nimrod Miner

Architect of Oracle's relational database management system and co-founder of Oracle Corporation, Miner led product design and development from 1977 until 1992. In December 1992, he left that role and spun off...

Edward Rolf Tufte

Noted for his writings on information design and statistics, Tufte is an expert in the presentation of informational graphics such as charts and diagrams, and a fellow of the American Statistical Association....

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...

Margaret R. Fox

Member of the technical staff of the Electronic Computer Laboratory at the National Bureau of Standards, Fox graduated from Wisconsin State College in 1940 and joined the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1943,...

Rudolf Bayer

Inventor of B-Trees and UB-Trees, Bayer is one of the most influential figures in the history of data structures and database systems. Rudolf Bayer was born in 1939 in Landshut, Germany. He...

Daniel Meyer

Founder of Southwest Technical Products Corporation (SWTPC), Meyer introduced kits for the AC-30 Cassette Interface data storage and the PR-40 printer. He was born in New Braunfels, Texas and raised in San...

Paul (Rusty) Russell

Writer of the packet filtering systems ipchains and netfilter/iptables in the Linux operating system kernel, Russell is an Australian free software programmer and advocate also known for his work on the Linux...

Clifford Alan Pickover

Member of the team that worked on design-automation workstations and developed code for IBM's IntelliStation, Pickover is an American author, editor, inventor, and columnist in the fields of science, mathematics, and science...

Victor Shoup

Co-developer of the Cramer–Shoup cryptosystem, the first efficient asymmetric encryption scheme proven to be secure against adaptive chosen ciphertext attack using standard cryptographic assumptions, Shoup is a computer scientist and mathematician. He...

Carol Shaw

Best known for creating River Raid (1982), the vertically scrolling shooter for the Atari 2600 released through Activision, Shaw is regarded as a pioneering figure in video game design. She joined Atari,...

Nicholas (Nick) DeWolf

Designer of more than 300 semiconductor and other test systems, including the J259, the world's first computer-operated integrated circuit tester, DeWolf co-founded Teradyne, a Boston, Massachusetts-based manufacturer of automatic test equipment, in...

Alvy Ray Smith, III

Co-founder of the animation studio Pixar and creator of the HSV color space, Smith is an American engineer and noted pioneer in computer graphics. In 1965, he received his Bachelor's Degree in...

Lynn G. Gref

Developer of the Rapid Development Methodology (RDM), Gref is a technologist and systems engineer who has done pioneering work in missile systems; command, control and communications (C3) systems; and satellite systems. He...