Famous computer scientists today

Famous computer scientists and their inventions
How did alan turing die
Top 10 computer pioneers

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Over seventy years ago, in 1948, the Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory exhibited a memory system for ‘an Electronic Digital Computing Machine’ at the Royal Society’s Summer Science Exhibition. By 1957, the Ferranti company was demonstrating the principles of electronic computing at the same event.

We’ve come a long way since then. A little while ago, the Royal Society Library held its first fully online history of science workshop – not such a milestone perhaps, but an indication of how much computers have changed our ability to communicate.

The event, ‘Computers and Computer People, 1950s-1990s’, brought together a distinguished group of contributors with, in many cases, personal knowledge of developments in the UK computer industry. We’ve now edited the videos from the event and put them all up on our Royal Society YouTube channel for public viewing. This article gives a summary of the contents of each of the four themed sessions, with screenshots to provide a flavour of what you’ll be able to see; there are also direct lin

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Alan Mathison Turing

Born June 23, 1912, London, England; died June 7, 1954, Manchester, England, creator of the concept of the "universal machine," the concepts of early computational machines, and computer logic.

Education: Sherborne School, 1926-1931; wrangler, mathematics tripos, Kings College, Cambridge; PhD, Princeton University, 1938.

Professional Experience: fellow, King's College, 1935-1945; Princeton University, 1936-1938; British Foreign Office, Bletchley Park, 1939-1945; National Physical Laboratory, 1945-1948; University of Manchester, 1948-1954.

Honors and Awards: Smith's Prize, Cambridge University, 1936; Order of the British Empire (OBE), 1946; fellow, Royal Society, 1951.

Alan Turing's interest in science began early and never wavered. Both at his preparatory schools and later at Sherborne, which he entered in 1926, the contrast between his absorbed interest in science and mathematics, and his indifference to Latin and "English subjects," perplexed and distressed his teachers, bent on giving him a well-balanced education. Many of the characteris

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Christopher Strachey

Born November 16, 1916, Hampstead, London, UK- died May 18, 1975, Oxford, England; early English programmer who in 1959 proposed a form of time-sharing, illuminated the understanding of progamming languages, and developed denotational semantics.

Education: Gresham's School, Norfolk, 1930-1935; lower second, natural sciences tripos, King's College, University of Cambridge, 1938.

Professional Experience: physicist, Standard Telephones and Cables, 1938-1945; physics/mathematics master, St. Edmund's School, Canterbury, 1945-1949; master, Harrow School, 1949-1952; technical officer, National Research and Development Corp. (NRDC), 1952-1959; private consultant, 1959-1966; University Mathematical Laboratory, Cambridge, 1962-1966; Programming Research Group, Oxford University, 1966-1975.

Honors and Awards: distinguished fellow, British Computer Society, 1972.

Born in 1916 into one of England's more prominent families, Christopher Strachey was educated at Gresham's School, Norfolk, and at King's College, Cambridge. He spent the war years in radar res