Charles Simonyi

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**Charles Simonyi**

Born	September 10, 1948 Budapest, Hungary
Occupation	Software architect

Charles Simonyi (Hungarian: Simonyi Károly) is a computer software developer, who, as head of Microsoft's application software group, oversaw the creation of Microsoft's flagship office applications. In 2007, he is scheduled to become the fifth space tourist.

1 Biography
2 Space tourist
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Biography

Simonyi was born in Budapest, Hungary on September 10, 1948. While in high school he worked part-time as a night watchman at a computer laboratory. He took an interest in computing and learned to program from one of the laboratory's engineers. By the time he graduated high school he had learned to develop compilers and sold one of these to a government department. He was hired by Denmark's A/S Regnecentralen in 1966 and moved to the United States in 1968 to attend the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his B.S. in Engineering Mathematics, specializing in Mathematics and Statistics, in 1972.

Simonyi continued to Stanford University for graduate studies and was hired by Xerox PARC during its most productive period, working alongside luminaries Alan Kay, Butler Lampson and Robert Metcalfe. He and Lampson developed Bravo, the first WYSIWYG document preparation program.

In 1981, at Metcalfe's suggestion, he applied directly to Bill Gates for a job at Microsoft. At Microsoft Simonyi oversaw the development of what became its most profitable products, Word and Excel, as well as Excel's predecessor Multiplan. With Multiplan, Simonyi pursued a strategy called the "revenue bomb," whereby the product ran on a virtual machine that was ported to each platform. The resulting application was highly portable, although Simonyi did not foresee the rapid adoption of MS-DOS that made such efforts less important.^[1]^[2]

Simonyi introduced the techniques of object-oriented programming that he had learned at Xerox and developed the Hungarian notation for naming variables. He also tested a software management method that had been the subject of his dissertation, called metaprogramming. Metaprogramming placed all design decisions in a single "metaprogrammer," with other programmers focusing strictly on implementing the metaprogrammer's design. Problems with this technique led to Microsoft adopting a different approach, now known as software program management.

Simonyi remained at Microsoft during its meteoric rise in the software industry, becoming one of its highest-ranking developers. He left abruptly in 2002 to co-found, with business partner Gregor Kiczales, a company called Intentional Software. This company markets the intentional programming concepts Simonyi developed at Microsoft Research.

In 2004, Simonyi received the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award for the industry-wide impact of his innovative work in information technology.

Simonyi has been an active philanthropist, establishing the Charles Simonyi Professor of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, the first occupant of which is Richard Dawkins. In January 2004, Simonyi created the $50 million Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences, through which Simonyi plans to support Seattle area arts, science, and educational programs. Initial grant recipients include the Seattle Symphony ($10 million), and the Seattle Public Library ($3 million). In 2005, the Fund donated $25 million to the Institute for Advanced Study.

**Charles Simonyi**
Cosmonaut

Nationality	American / Hungarian
Born	September 10, 1948 Budapest, Hungary
Occupation¹	Software architect
Rank	Spaceflight participant
Selection	2006
Mission(s)
¹ previous or current

[edit] Space tourist

In early 2006 Simonyi expressed interest in becoming a space tourist and signed agreements with the world's leading space tourism company, Space Adventures, Ltd., for a 10-day mission to the International Space Station.

In August 2006, he passed a pre-qualification medical exam, called the Government Medical Commission (GMK), signifying the achievement of a major milestone in his orbital spaceflight preparation. ^[3]He started training at Star City in September 2006. ^[4]

Currently, he is scheduled to be launched in spring 2007 on board Soyuz TMA-10. He will share a ride with two other cosmonauts on a 10-day trip to the International Space Station.

Simonyi is also owner of the Skat 8th largest private yacht in U.S. according to Power and Motoryacht Magazine.