Kenneth E. Iverson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Kenneth Eugene Iverson | |
| Born | December 17, 1920 Camrose, Alberta, Canada |
|---|---|
| Died | October 19, 2004 (aged 83) Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Citizenship | Canadian |
| Fields | Computer Science |
| Institutions | Harvard University IBM |
| Alma mater | Queen's University Harvard University |
| Doctoral advisor | Wassily Leontief and Howard Aiken |
| Known for | APL programming language J programming language |
| Notable awards | IBM Fellow Harry H. Goode Memorial Award Turing Award Computer Pioneer Award National Medal of Technology |
Kenneth Eugene Iverson (17 December 1920 - 19 October 2004) was a Canadian computer scientist noted for the development of the APL programming language in 1957. He was honored with the Turing Award in 1979 for his contributions to mathematical notation and programming language theory. The Iverson Award for contributions to APL was named in his honor.
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[edit] Life
Ken Iverson was born on December 17, 1920 in Camrose, a town in central Alberta, Canada. His parents were farmers of Norwegian descent who came to Alberta from North Dakota. While he showed an early aptitude for math, teaching himself calculus while a teenager, he left school after the 9th grade to work on his parents farm. However, during World War II, while he served in the Royal Canadian Air Force, he qualified for a high school diploma by taking correspondence courses. After the war, he was able to enter Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario and graduated in 1950 with a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics and Physics.
Continuing his education at Harvard University, he received a Master's degree in 1951 in Mathematics and started working with Howard Aiken and Wassily Leontief . Howard Aiken had developed the Harvard Mark I, one of the first large-scale digital computers, while Wassily Leontief was an economist who was developing the input-output model of economic analysis, work for which he would later receive the Nobel prize. Leontief's model required large matrices and Iverson worked on programs that could evaluate these matrices on the Harvard Mark IV computer. Iverson received a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics in 1954 with a dissertation based on this work.
Iverson stayed at Harvard as an assistant professor for the next five years but failed to get tenure.
Hired by IBM to develop his notation into a programming language for the IBM/360.
In 1980, he left IBM for I. P. Sharp Associates, which used APL to provide time-sharing services. In 1987 he left I. P. Sharp and, along with Roger Hui and Arthur Whitney, worked on the development of J, a variant of APL.
He died of a stroke on October 19, 2004 at the age of 83.
[edit] Work
Iverson developed a mathematical notation for manipulating arrays that he taught to his students. In 1960, he began work for IBM and working with Adin Falkoff, created APL based on the notation he had developed. He was named an IBM Fellow in 1970.
[edit] Major Publications
- A Programming Language, John Wiley and Sons, (1962)
- Automatic Data Processing (with Frederick Brooks), John Wiley and Sons (1963)
- A formal Description of the System /360, (with A. D. Falkoff and E. H. Sussenguth), IBM Systems Journal, vol. 3. no. 3, 1964, pp. 198-262.
- Elementary Functions: an algorithmic treatment (Science Research Associates, Inc.) (1966)
- APL/360:User's Manual (with A. D. Falkoff), IBM, 1968
- APL in Exposition, IBM Philadelphia Sceientific Center Tech. Report No. 320-3010, IBM, 1972.
- The Design of APL, (with A. D. Falkoff) IBM J. Research and Development, vol. 17, no. 4, 19073, pp. 324-334.
- Notation as a Tool of Thought, Comm. ACM, vol. 23, no. 8, 1980, pp. 444-465.
- A Source Book In APL (with Adin D. Falkoff) (APL Press) (1981)
- Tangible Math (Iverson Software Inc.) (1990)
- A Personal View of APL, IBM System Journal, vol. 30, no. 4, 1991, pp. 582-593.
- The ISI Dictionary of J (Iverson Software Inc.) (1991)
[edit] Awards
- IBM Fellow (IBM) (1970)
- Harry H. Goode Memorial Award (IEEE Computer Society) (1975)
- Turing Award (Association for Computing Machinery) (1979)
- Computer Pioneer Award [Charter recipient] (IEEE Computer Society) (1982)
- Honrary doctorate, York University, Toronto, 1998
[edit] See also
[edit] External article links
- A Formal Description of SYSTEM/360 by Adin D. Falkoff, Kenneth E. Iverson, and Edward H. Sussenguth, Jr., IBM Systems Journal, Volume 3, Number 3, 1964.
- The Design of APL by Adin D. Falkoff and Kenneth E. Iverson, IBM Journal of Research and Development, Volume 17, Number 4, 1973.
- Notation as a Tool of Thought (1979 Turing Award Lecture) by Kenneth E. Iverson, Communications of the ACM, Volume 23, Number 8, August 1980.
- A Personal View of APL by Kenneth E. Iverson, IBM Systems Journal, Volume 30, Number 4, 1991.
[edit] External links
- Kenneth E. Iverson: This page at the Digital Bibliography and Library Project lists Kenneth Iverson's publications.
- Short Biography at the science.ca website
- Obituary in The Times
- Obituary at the Association for Computing Machinery
- Ehud Lamm's obituary at Lambda the Ultimate
- Remembering Kenneth E. Iverson Memorial issue of Vector, the Journal of the British APL Association
- A Celebration of the life of Kenneth Eugene Iverson
- Ken Iverson on the WikiWikiWeb
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| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Iverson, Kenneth Eugene |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Computer Science |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 17, 1920 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Camrose, Alberta, Canada |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 19, 2004 |
| PLACE OF DEATH | Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
