Gregg M. Townsend

Implementer of noteworthy aspects of the Icon runtime system and developer of the Arizona webcam, Townsend worked at the University of Arizona for a total of 36 years, retiring in 2009, but...

Jay N. Goldberg

Purchaser of Money Management Systems, Inc. (MMS) in 1986, Goldberg acquired the firm — which sold software and services to banks and broker-dealers for securities trading activities — from Ziff-Davis, later selling...

Frances Spence (née Bilas)

One of the original programmers for the ENIAC computer, Spence was born Frances Bilas in Philadelphia in 1922. She attended Temple University but then was awarded a scholarship to Chestnut Hill College,...

Richard (Dick) Manning Karp

Co-publisher with John Hopcroft of the Hopcroft–Karp algorithm, still the fastest known method for finding maximum cardinality matchings in bipartite graphs, Karp is a computer scientist and computational theorist at the University...

Kevin Warwick

Best known for his studies on direct interfaces between computer systems and the human nervous system, Warwick is a British scientist and professor of cybernetics whose research also spans the field of...

Marcian (Ted) Edward Hoff

Inventor of the microprocessor, Hoff joined Intel in 1967 as employee number 12, and is credited with coming up with the idea of a universal processor instead of custom-designed circuits. His insight...

Albert Hosmer Bowker

Instrumental in the formation of the Stanford University Computer Science department, Bowker was an American educator who shaped academic computing at a pivotal moment. Born in Winchendon, Mass., he grew up in...

Elisha Gray

Best known for his development of a telephone prototype in 1876, Gray is considered by some writers to be the true inventor of the variable resistance telephone, despite losing out to Alexander...

Rakesh Agrawal

Developer of fundamental data mining concepts and technologies, Agrawal is well known for pioneering key concepts in data privacy, including Hippocratic Database, Sovereign Information Sharing, and Privacy-Preserving Data Mining. IBM's commercial data...

Norman Macrae

Foreseer of the spread of the internet and biographer of Johnny Von Neumann, Macrae was considered by some to have been one of the world's best forecasters when it came to economics...

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Discoverer of the binary number system and independent co-inventor of infinitesimal calculus, Leibniz occupied a prominent place in the history of mathematics and the history of philosophy. He developed the infinitesimal calculus...

Edward Fredkin

A pioneer of reversible computing and cellular automata, Fredkin was also an early pioneer of digital physics, later using the term digital philosophy (DP) to describe his work. While Konrad Zuse's book,...

Ling Liu

Head of the Distributed Data Intensive Systems Lab (DiSL) research group at Georgia Institute of Technology, Liu is known for producing a number of open-source software systems, including WebCQ, XWRAPElite, PeerCrawl, GTMobSIM,...

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...

John E. Kelly, III

Founder of IBM's Semiconductor Research and Development Center in 1996, Kelly set the pace in IBM's semiconductor technology development, unveiling back-end-of-the-line copper interconnect technology ahead of the industry and introducing the transition...

Ron Johnson

Pioneer of the Apple Retail Stores and the Genius Bar, Johnson is an American businessman who served as Senior Vice President of Retail Operations at Apple Inc. from January 2000 to November...

Evan Sharp

Co-founder and Chief Creative Officer of Pinterest, Sharp designed the Pinterest grid for the initial product launch. Pinterest is a visual bookmarking tool that skyrocketed in popularity due to its innovative concept...

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...

John George Kemeny

Co-developer of the BASIC programming language, Kemeny transformed computing by making it accessible to ordinary people. Kemeny entered Princeton University, where he studied mathematics and philosophy, but he took a year off during...

Dave Smith

Known as the "Father of MIDI" for his role in developing the Musical Instrument Digital Interface, Smith pioneered many groundbreaking technologies in music. He was also responsible for the Prophet 5, the...