Philip Don Estridge

Known as "the father of the IBM PC," Estridge led development of the original IBM Personal Computer. His decisions dramatically changed the computer industry, resulting in a vast increase in the number...

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...

Marvin Lee Minsky

Co-founder of MIT's AI laboratory and a towering figure in artificial intelligence, Minsky was an American cognitive scientist and author of several texts on AI and philosophy.

Kathleen Booth (née Britten)

Credited with writing the first assembly language and the design of the assembler and autocode (ARC and APE(X)C) for the Birkbeck College computers, Booth made foundational contributions to computer programming. Born in...

Michael Franz

Pioneer in mobile code and dynamic compilation, Franz led the Secure Systems and Languages Laboratory at the University of California, Irvine — one of the top research teams on dynamic compilation, virtual...

Myron Kayton

Designer and analyzer of some of the earliest multi-sensor navigation systems, Kayton has spent much of his career working for TRW, NASA, and Litton, followed by running his own practice for 18...

Dharma P. Agrawal

Leader of the University of Cincinnati - BlueTooth (UCBT) Bluetooth package, Agrawal was a communications scientist who specialized in wireless sensor networks. He served as the Ohio Board of Regents Distinguished Professor...

Maxine Fassberg

Named one of the "10 most powerful women in tech" by CNN in 2010, Fassberg spent 33 years rising through key positions at Intel, ultimately serving as general manager and CEO of...

George Boole

Inventor of Boolean logic, Boole was one of the most influential mathematicians in history. His father, John Boole (1779–1848), was a tradesman of limited means, but of "studious character and active mind"....

Ben Silbermann

Co-founder and CEO of Pinterest, a virtual pinboard that grew faster than Facebook and Twitter, Silbermann launched the platform in early 2010 alongside Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp. Pinterest is a free...

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...

Ken W. Kolence

Co-founder of Boole & Babbage, the first software product firm in Silicon Valley, Kolence is recognized as a software industry pioneer and computer executive. He received his Master's degree in Math, with...

Mark Allen Weiss

Writer of highly acclaimed Data Structures textbooks used at hundreds of universities worldwide, Weiss has served as a Professor and Associate Director in the School of Computing and Information Sciences at Florida...

Frederick M. Hoar

A Silicon Valley public relations and marketing executive legend, Hoar died January 2 after a three-year bout with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. He was 77. Hoar was one of Silicon Valley's most visible public...

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...

Elizabeth M. Belding

Founder and Director of the Mobility Management and Networking (MOMENT) Laboratory, Belding has served as a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and as...

Jack Keil Wolf

Known for his work in coding theory as applied to magnetic storage, Wolf made pioneering and sustained contributions to information theory and digital information storage. He was also an expert in signal...

Armas (Mike) Clifford Markkula

Angel investor and second CEO of Apple Computer, Markkula provided early critical funding and managerial support to the company. He was introduced to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak when they were looking...

Michael L. Hackworth

Co-founder of Cirrus Logic, Inc., a fabless semiconductor supplier specializing in analog, mixed-signal, and audio DSP integrated circuits (ICs), Hackworth served as its Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO. Born in San...

Phill Gross

Leader of the development of MCI Corporation's first national network, Gross co-founded the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and was instrumental in defining and shaping the way in which the IETF standards...