Clifford Ivar Nass

Co-creator of The Media Equation theory, which holds that people tend to treat computers and other media as if they were either real people or real places, Nass was a renowned authority...

Yvonne Marie Andres

Among the earliest people to use the Internet to develop global e-learning opportunities for educators and students, Andrés founded the nonprofit Global SchoolNet in 1984, an international organization that facilitates collaborative educational...

Robert (Bob) H. Dennard

Inventor of dynamic random access memory (DRAM), Dennard's creation of the one-transistor dynamic RAM was a core development in the launch of today's computer industry, setting the stage for development of increasingly...

Anthony Finkelstein

Recognized internationally for his contributions to software engineering and requirements engineering, Finkelstein graduated from the LSE with a Masters in systems, then went on to take a PhD at the Royal College...

Nicholas (Nick) M. Donofrio

Leader of IBM's technology and innovation strategies, Donofrio served as Executive Vice President of Innovation and Technology at IBM from 1997 until his retirement in October 2008. Born in Beacon, New York,...

Lewis Fry Richardson

Pioneer of fractals and the modified Richardson iteration method for solving systems of linear equations, Richardson was also an English mathematician, physicist, meteorologist, psychologist, and pacifist who pioneered modern mathematical techniques of...

Larry Smarr

Advocate for a high-speed network linking the National Science Foundation and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications — which became the NSFnet, one of the significant predecessors of today's Internet — Smarr...

William Seward Burroughs

Inventor of the adding machine, Burroughs was posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. An American inventor, born in Rochester, New York, the son of a mechanic, he worked with...

Julius Blank

Co-developer of an inexpensive method for manufacturing silicon chips, building them from scratch beginning with the machinery for growing silicon crystals, Blank was a semiconductor pioneer and a member of the so-called...

Karl Kempf

Pioneer in applying advanced mathematics to industrial and engineering challenges, Kempf is best known for heading a group of mathematicians at Stanford University who built computer models allowing Intel to design financial...

David Lorge Parnas

Originator of the concept of information hiding in modular programming, Parnas is a Canadian early pioneer of software engineering whose work became a foundational element of object-oriented programming. He has also been...

Richard (Rick) Thomas Watson

Co-leader of the Global Text Project, which provides free electronic textbooks for students in the developing world, Watson has held the J. Rex Fuqua Distinguished Chair for Internet Strategy in the Department...

Jozef Gruska

A pioneer in the theory of quantum computing and organizing activities in the field, Gruska graduated in mathematics from Commenius University in Bratislava and received a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the...

Chandu Thota

A widely recognized expert in mapping, geo-spatial applications, and scalable web services, Thota is a software entrepreneur notable for starting a service called Dealmap, which launched DealExchange to help publishers and local...

Dave Winer

Pioneer in the development of weblogs, RSS, and web content management, Winer has been a leading web writer and innovator since the early days of the internet. In 1979, Winer worked for Personal...

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...

Shaun Wylie

A key member of Hut 8 at Bletchley Park, Wylie worked alongside Alan Turing on solving the Enigma machine as used by the German Navy. He was born in Oxford, England, the...

Steven (Steve) Gibson

Creator of one of the first adware removal programs, OptOut, Gibson is an American software engineer and security researcher. Born in Dayton, Ohio, he began working on computers as a teenager, and...

Barry M. Leiner

Instrumental in establishing the Internet Activities Board (IAB), which led the effort to set technical standards for the Internet, Leiner was a government scientist and Program Manager at the U. S. Defense...

Joel McCormack

Key software designer at NCR, McCormack designed the NCR Corporation version of the p-code machine, a kind of stack machine popular in the 1970s as the preferred way to implement new computing...