From historical figures who
set the foundation of today’s revolution, to modern giants of the
computer industry, through geneticists, inventors, physicists,
philosophers, futurists, and others, this wide-ranging sourcebook explores
the lives and work of 250 pioneers of the information age.
Photographs accompany many of
the entries. A detailed timeline spanning the 14th century
through today is also featured.
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Norman Abramson, Creator
of ALOHANET Networks
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Howard Aiken, Designer
of the Harvard Mark I (a.k.athe ASCC)
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Ernst F.W.
Alexanderson, Inventor of the high-frequency alternator for
radio
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Paul Allen, Co-founder
of Microsoft
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Gene Amdahl, Designer
of the first computer operating system
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Marc Andreessen and
James H Clark, Netscape co-founders
-
Ernest Galen
Andrews, Designer of electromechanical computers
-
George Antheil, Composer
and inventor of frequency hopping
-
Edwin Howard
Armstrong, Inventor and electrical engineer
-
Roy Ash, Executive
with Litton Industries and AM International
-
John Atanasoff, Inventor
of the first electronic computer
-
Bill Atkinson, Computer
programmer and creator of HyperCard
-
Charles Babbage, Inventor
of the Analytical Engine and the Difference Engine
-
John Backus, Inventor
of the FORTRAN programming language
-
Frank Stephen
Baldwin, Inventor of the Baldwin calculator
-
Steven Ballmer, CEO
of Microsoft
-
Paul Baran, Developer
of packet-switching theory
-
John Bardeen, Co-inventor
of the transistor
-
John Perry Barlow, Internet
activist and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
-
Jean-Maurice-Émile
Baudot, Electrical engineer and inventor
-
Alexander Graham
Bell, Inventor
-
Gordon Bell, Computer
designer
-
Emile Berliner, Inventor
-
Tim Berners-Lee, Creator
of the World Wide Web
-
Clifford Berry, Co-developer
of electronic computing
-
Jeff Bezos, Founder
of Amazon.com
-
Julian Bigelow, Cybernetics
pioneer
-
Gerd Binning, Co-creator
of the scanning tunneling microscope
-
Vilhelm Bjerknes, Physicist
and creator of modern meteorology
-
John Blankenbaker, Developer
of the Kenbak-1 personal computer
-
Léon Bollée, Inventor
of the calculer
-
George Boole, Logician
and mathematician
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Mathew B Brady, Photographer
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John Grist Brainerd,
Administrator of the ENIAC
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Stewart Brand, Founder
of The Whole Earth Catalog
-
Walter Brattain, Co-inventor
of the transistor
-
Dan Bricklin, Co-creator
of the VisiCalc computer program
-
Larry Brilliant, Co-founder
of The WELL
-
James Ware Bryce, Chief
scientist at IBM (1917–1948)
-
Arthur W Burks, Mathematician,
philosopher, and computer scientist
-
William Seward
Burroughs, Inventor and entrepreneur
-
Vannevar Bush, Inventor
of the first operative mechanical computer
-
Nolan Bushnell, Video-game
designer
-
Rod Canion, Co-founder
of the the Compaq Computer Corporation
-
Chester Floyd
Carlson, Inventor of xerography
-
Doug Carlston, Founder
of Broderbund Software
-
Steve Case, Former
chairman of AOL Time Warner
-
Giovanni Caselli, Inventor
of the pantelegraph facsimile machine
-
Vinton G. Cerf, Co-developer
of TCP/IP
-
Wesley A Clark, Computer
designer and consultant
-
Arthur C Clarke, Science-fiction
and nonfiction writer
-
John Cocke, Innovator
of reduced instruction set computing (RISC)
-
Francis Collins, Director
of the National Human Genome Research Institute
-
Leslie John Comrie, Astronomer
and mathematician
-
Fernando Corbató, Developer
of the Compatible Time-Sharing System (CTSS)
-
Louis Couffignal, Developer
of electronic-computing technology
-
Seymour Cray, Electronic
engineer and designer of the first supercomputer
-
Marie Curie, Pioneer
of the science of radioactivity and radiology
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Louis Jacques Mandé
Daguerre, Inventor of the daguerreotype
-
Lee de Forest, Inventor
and radio pioneer
-
Michael Dell, Founder
and CEO of Dell Computer
-
Robert H. Dennard, Inventor
of DRAM (a.k.adynamic RAM)
-
Albert Blake Dick, Inventor
of the mimeograph
-
John Diebold, Founder
of the JD Consulting Group
-
Whitfield Diffie, Mathematician,
engineer, inventor, and political activist
-
Edsger Dijkstra, Computer
programmer
-
George Eastman, Founder
of the Eastman Kodak Company
-
J. Presper Eckert, Co-creator
of the ENIAC and the UNIVAC
-
Thomas Alva Edison, Inventor
-
Albert Einstein, Creator
of special and general theories of relativity
-
Lawrence J Ellison,
Chairman and CEO of Oracle
-
Douglas Engelbart, Personal-computing
innovator
-
George W. Fairchild,
Founder of the International Time Recording Company
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Shawn Fanning, Founder
of Napster
-
Philo Taylor
Farnsworth, Inventor of electronic television
-
Edward A. Feigenbaum,
Computer scientist
-
Dorr E. Felt, Inventor
of the comptometer
-
Reginald Aubrey
Fessenden, Radio pioneer
-
David Filo and Jerry
Yang, Co-Founders of Yahoo!
-
Donald A. Flanders, Mathematician
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John Ambrose
Fleming, Creator of the first electron tube
-
Charles R. Flint, Financier
-
Thomas H. Flowers, Designer
of the Colossus computer
-
Jay Wright
Forrester, Creator of RAM
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Robert Frankston, Co-creator
of the VisiCalc computer program
-
Gordon French, Co-founder
of the Homebrew Computer Club
-
William Frederick
Friedman, Cryptologist
-
Bill Gates, Co-founder,
chairman, and chief software architect of Microsoft
-
William Gibson, Science-fiction
writer
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Stanley Gill, Co-builder
of the EDSAC
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Herman Heine
Goldstine, Administrator of the ENIAC and the IAS computer
-
James Gosling, Developer
of the Java computer language
-
George Barnard
Grant, Designer and manufacturer of calculating machines
-
René Grillet, Inventor
of an adding machine
-
Andrew S. Grove, Chairman
of Intel
-
Leslie R. Groves, Director
of the Manhattan Project
-
Johannes Gutenberg, Inventor
of the first moveable-type printing press
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Robert Hall, Inventor
of the first semiconductor laser
-
Richard Hamming, Creator
of Hamming codes
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Douglas R. Hartree, Campaigner
for computer development in Great Britain
-
Frank Heart, ARPANET
engineer
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Johan Helsingius, Creator
of remailing service
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Heinrich Rudolf
Hertz, Radio pioneer
-
William R. Hewlett, Co-founder
of Hewlett-Packard
-
Jean A. Hoerni, Inventor
of the planar process
-
Marcian E. Hoff Jr.,
Microchip pioneer
-
Herman Hollerith, Inventor
of the Hollerith tabulator
-
Grace Hopper, Computer-programming
pioneer
-
Cuthbert C. Hurd, IBM
executive and mathematician
-
Harry Douglas Huskey,
Developer of the SWAC
-
Joseph Jacquard, Inventor
of a punched-card automated loom
-
William Stanley
Jevons, Logician
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Steven Jobs, Co-founder
and CEO of Apple Computer
-
Reynold B. Johnson, Inventor
of the first commercial magnetic disk drive
-
Anita K. Jones, Computer
scientist
-
Brian D. Josephson, Nobel
Prize–winning physicist and superconductor researcher
-
William Joy, Co-founder
of Sun Microsystems
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Philippe Kahn, Founder
of Borland International
-
Robert E. Kahn, Co-creator
of the ARPANET and TCP/IP
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Mitchell D. Kapor, Founder
of the Lotus Development Corporation
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Alan Kay, Inventor
of the Dynabook
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Andrew F. Kay, Founder
of Kaypro
-
Donald B. Keck, Physicist
and co-inventor of optical fiber
-
John Kemeny, Pioneer
of time-sharing and co-author of the computer programming language BASIC
-
Johannes Kepler, Astronomer
and mathematician
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Charles F. Kettering, Former head of General Motors’ Research
Laboratories Division
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Tom Kilburn, Co-designer
of the Manchester Mark 1 and Atlas computers 308
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Jack St. Clair Kilby,
Co-creator of the microchip
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Gary A. Kildall, Creator
of CP/M, an early operating system
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Athanasius Kircher
and Gaspar Schott, Jesuit scholars
-
Leonard Kleinrock, Co-creator
of the ARPANET
-
Donald Ervin Knuth, Author
of The Art of Computer Programming and
-
developer of
typesetting programs
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Herbert Kroemer, Nobel
Prize–winning physicist and developer of
-
semiconductor
technologies
-
Thomas E Kurtz, Pioneer
of time-sharing and co-author of the computer programming language BASIC
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Raymond Kurzweil, Futurist
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Clair D Lake, Engineer
and inventor
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Hedy Lamarr, Actress
and originator of frequency hopping
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Edwin H Land, Founder
of the Polaroid Corporation
-
Irving Langmuir, Nobel
Prize–winning chemist and inventor
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S. A. Lebedev, Soviet
computer pioneer and developer of the MESM
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Derrick Henry Lehmer,
Mathematician and inventor
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Gottfried Wilhelm
von Leibniz, Inventor of the Stepped Reckoner and a developer of
calculus
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Sandra Lerner and
Leonard Bosack, Co-founders of Cisco Systems
-
Joseph C. RLicklider, Pioneer of computer networking
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Ramon Llull, Inventor
of the Llullian logic machine
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Ada King Lovelace, Computing
pioneer
-
Percy E. Ludgate, Creator
of an analytical engine
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Benoit Mandelbrot, Developer
of fractal theory
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Guglielmo Marconi, Pioneer
of radio telegraphy
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Allan Marquand, Archaeologist
and professor
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James Martin, Information
technology consultant, business leader, and author
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Herbert F. Mataré, Physicist
and developer of the transitron
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John William Mauchly,
Co-creator of the ENIAC and the UNIVAC
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Robert D. Maurer, Physicist
and co-inventor of telecommunications optical fibers
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Stanley Mazor, Inventor
of the single-chip microprocessor
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John McCarthy, Pioneer
in the field of artificial intelligence
-
Scott McNealy, Chairman,
CEO, and co-founder of Sun Microsystems
-
Sid Meier, Video-game
designer
-
William D. Mensch
Jr., Microprocessor pioneer and founder of the Western Design Center
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Robert M. Metcalfe, Inventor
of the Ethernet and founder of the 3Com Corporation
-
Nicholas C.
Metropolis, Developer of the Mathematical Numerical Integrator and Computer
(MANIAC)
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Jay Miner, Developer
of the Amiga computer
-
Halsey Minor, Former
chairman and CEO of CNET: The Computer Network
-
Marvin Minsky, Artificial-intelligence
researcher
-
Robert Moog, Inventor
of the Moog music synthesizer
-
Charles H. Moore, Developer
of the Forth computer language
-
Gordon E. Moore, Co-founder
of Intel
-
Samuel Morland, Inventor
of mechanical calculators
-
Samuel F. B. Morse, Pioneer
of the electric telegraph and inventor of Morse code
-
John Napier, Mathematician
and inventor
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Peter Naur, Co-developer
of the Backus-Naur Format
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Nicholas Negroponte,
Director of the MIT Media Laboratory
-
Ted Nelson, Software
developer and creator of Xanadu
-
Maxwell Herman
Alexander Newman, Developer of computer technologies
-
Raymond Noorda, Computer
executive and entrepreneur
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Peter Norton, Computer-software
pioneer
-
Robert Noyce, Co-inventor
of the integrated circuit
-
Kristen Nygaard, Computer
scientist and developer of Simula
-
Willgodt Theophil
Odhner, Inventor of the Odhner calculator
-
Georg Simon Ohm, Physicist,
mathematician, and electrical pioneer
-
Kenneth H. Olsen, Founder
of the Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)
-
Adam Osborne, Founder
of the Osborne Computer Corporation
-
William Oughtred, Inventor
of the slide rule
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David Packard, Co-founder
of Hewlett-Packard
-
Alexey Pajitnov, Mathematician,
computer programmer, and creator of Tetris
-
Seymour A. Papert, Inventor
of the Logo computer programming language
-
Blaise Pascal, Mathematician
and inventor of the Pascaline calculator
-
John H. Patterson, Entrepreneur
and industrialist
-
Jan Aleksander
Rajchman, Engineer and inventor
-
Simon Ramo, Co-founder
of TRW
-
James Henry Rand
Jr., President and general manager of Remington Rand
-
C. Wayne Ratliff, Software
engineer, creator of dBASE database computer software
-
Dennis Ritchie, Developer
of the C programming language and Unix operating system
-
H. Edward Roberts, Maker
of the Altair 8800
-
Lawrence G. Roberts,
Project manager and lead architect of the ARPANET
-
Michael Robertson, Founder
of MP3.com
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Heinrich Rohrer, Nobel
Prize–winning physicist
-
Ernst Ruska, Inventor
of the electron microscope
-
Bertrand Russell, Philosopher,
mathematician
-
Jean E. Sammet, Developer
of COBOL (with Grace Hopper) and FORMAC
-
David Sarnoff, CEO
of RCA and founder of NBC
-
Georg Scheutz, Builder
of the first operational Difference Engine
-
Wilhelm Schickard, Astronomer
and mathematician
-
Peter C. Schultz, Ceramics
engineer and co-inventor of telecommunications optical fibers
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Claude E. Shannon, Information
theorist, mathematician, and artificial intelligence pioneer
-
William Shockley, Co-inventor
of the transistor
-
Alan F. Shugart, Disk-drive
innovator
-
Herbert A. Simon, Pioneer
in the field of artificial intelligence and economist
-
Charles Simonyi, Computer
programmer
-
Clive Sinclair, Inventor
and founder of Sinclair Research
-
Elmer Ambrose
Sperry, Inventor and pioneer in the field of gyroscopic technology
-
Charles Stanhope,
third earl of Stanhope, Inventor of the Stanhope Demonstrator
-
Charles Proteus
Steinmetz, Electrical engineer and inventor
-
George Robert
Stibitz, Creator of the complex-number calculator
-
Christopher Strachey,
Computer designer and programmer
-
Antonin Svoboda, Computer
scientist, engineer, and inventor
-
Andrew S. Tanenbaum,
Creator of the Minix operating system
-
Robert W. Taylor, Computer
administrator
-
Gordon K. Teal, Germanium
and silicon-crystal developer
-
Nikola Tesla, Inventor
of alternating current
-
Charles Xavier
Thomas de Colmar, Inventor of the Arithmometer
-
Kenneth Thompson, Developer
of Unix
-
Jonathan Titus, Creator
of the Mark-8 computer
-
Ray Tomlinson, Electronic-mail
pioneer
-
Leonardo Torres y
Quevedo, Engineer and inventor
-
Linus Torvalds, Creator
of the Linux operating system
-
Jack Tramiel, Entrepreneur
and computer-industry executive
-
Alan M Turing, Developer
of the Turing machine
-
Wolfgang von
Kempelen, Inventor
-
Klaus von Klitzing, Discoverer
of the quantum Hall effect
-
John von Neumann, Mathematician
and computing innovator
-
Ted Waitt, Chairman,
CEO, and co-founder of Gateway
-
An Wang, Founder
of Wang Laboratories
-
John Warnock, Chairman
and CEO of Adobe System
-
Jim Warren, Co-founder
of the West Coast Computer Faire, journalist
-
publisher, computer
consultant, and political activist
-
Thomas J. Watson
Jr., Long-time head of IBM
-
Thomas J. Watson
Sr., First president and CEO of IBM
-
Gerald M. Weinberg, Computer
scientist and author
-
Joseph Weizenbaum, Artificial-intelligence
pioneer and creator of ELIZA
-
Don Wetzel, Inventor
of the ATM
-
Alfred North
Whitehead, Mathematician and philosopher
-
Norbert Wiener, Originator
of cybernetics
-
Maurice Vincent
Wilkes, Designer of the EDSAC
-
Frederic Calland
Williams, Inventor of the Williams Tube
-
Niklaus Wirth, Developer
of the Pascal computer language
-
Stephen Wozniak, Co-founder
of Apple Computer
-
Ed Yourdon, Computer
consultant and writer
-
Philip R.
Zimmermann, Founder of PGP Incand privacy activist
-
Konrad Zuse, Creator
of the first binary digital computer
-
Vladimir Kosma
Zworykin, Inventor of the cathode-ray tube
