computer science

List of computing people

List of computing people is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand List of computing people rather than just read about it. In short: This is a list of people who are important or notable in the field of computing, but who are not primarily computer scientists or programmers. A Alfred Aho, co-developer of the AWK Leonard Adleman, encryption (RSA) Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape Communications Corporation B Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web Stephen Bourne, developer of the Bourne shell C John Carmack, realtime computer game gr…

Key takeaways

List of computing people belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect List of computing people to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of List of computing people from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

This is a list of people who are important or notable in the field of computing, but who are not primarily computer scientists or programmers.

A Alfred Aho, co-developer of the AWK Leonard Adleman, encryption (RSA) Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape Communications Corporation

B Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web Stephen Bourne, developer of the Bourne shell

C John Carmack, realtime computer game graphics, id Software Noam Chomsky, linguist, language theorist (Chomsky hierarchy) and social critic

D Theo de Raadt, founder of the OpenBSD and OpenSSH projects

E J. Presper Eckert, ENIAC Larry Ellison, co-founder of Oracle Corporation Marc Ewing, creator of Red Hat Linux

G Bill Gates, co-founder and Chairman of Microsoft James Gosling, "father" of the Java programming language

H Grace Hopper, she was a pioneer of computer programming who invented one of the first linkers.

I Jonathan Ive, Senior Vice President of Industrial Design at Apple

J Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO of Apple Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, BSD

K Brian Kernighan, Dennis Ritchie, C programming language Donald Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming, TeX

L Rasmus Lerdorf, creator of the PHP Scripting Language Lawrence Lessig, professor of law and founder of the Creative Commons Ada Lovelace

M John William Mauchly, ENIAC John McCarthy, LISP programming language Bob Miner, co-founder of Oracle Corporation Marvin Minsky, AI luminary Gordon E. Moore, co-founder of Intel, Moore's Law Elon Musk, co-founder of PayPal, Tesla, Inc, SpaceX,

N Roger Needham John von Neumann, theoretical computer science Robert Noyce, co-founder of Intel and the founder of integrated circuit

P Sir John Anthony Pople, pioneer in computational chemistry Jon Postel, Internet pioneer, founder of IANA

R Eric Raymond, Open source movement luminary Dennis Ritchie, Unix operating system and C programming language Ron Rivest, encryption (RSA) Guido van Rossum, Python (programming language) Benevolent Dictator For Life

S Adi Shamir, encryption (RSA) Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical Richard Stallman, founder of GNU Olaf Storaasli, NASA Finite element machine Bjarne Stroustrup, founder of C++

T Ken Thompson, Unix and Plan 9 operating systems Linus Torvalds, Linux Alan Turing, British mathematician and cryptographer

W Prof. Joseph Weizenbaum, computer critic Kevin Warwick, cyborg scientist, implant self-experimenter Niklaus Wirth, developed Pascal Peter J. Weinberger, co-developer of the AWK language Sophie Wilson, designer of the ARM instruction set Stephen Wolfram, founder of Wolfram Research, physicist, software developer, mathematician Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple; creator of the Apple I and Apple II computers

Z Jill Zimmerman, James M. Beall Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Goucher College Konrad Zuse, built one of the first computers Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of Facebook

See also List of programmers List of computer scientists List of pioneers in computer science List of Russian IT developers

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with List of computing people

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what List of computing people claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to List of computing people before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about List of computing people ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of List of computing people

In research: List of computing people appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses List of computing people in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: List of computing people is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Computing-related lists, Lists of people in STEM fields, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for List of computing people outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study List of computing people in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what List of computing people means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain List of computing people out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is List of computing people in simple terms?

This is a list of people who are important or notable in the field of computing, but who are not primarily computer scientists or programmers. A Alfred Aho, co-developer of the AWK Leonard Adleman, encryption (RSA) Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Netscape Communications Corporation B Tim Berners-Lee…

Why does List of computing people matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study List of computing people?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on List of computing people.