Alan Perlis
| Alan J. Perlis | |
|---|---|
| Born |
April 1, 1922 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Died |
February 7, 1990 (aged 67) New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
| Nationality | United States |
| Fields | Computer Science |
| Institutions |
Association for Computing Machinery Carnegie Mellon University Yale University Purdue University |
| Alma mater |
Carnegie Mellon (B.S., Chemistry, 1943) MIT (M.S., Mathematics, 1949; Ph.D., Mathematics, 1950) |
| Thesis | On Integral Equations, Their Solution by Iteration and Analytic Continuation (1950) |
| Doctoral advisor | Philip Franklin |
| Doctoral students |
Gary Lindstrom Zohar Manna David Parnas |
| Known for | IT, ALGOL |
| Notable awards |
Turing Award (1966) Computer Pioneer Award (1985) |
Alan Jay Perlis (April 1, 1922 – February 7, 1990) was an American computer scientist known for his pioneering work in programming languages and the first recipient of the Turing Award.[1]
Biography
Perlis was born to a Jewish family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1943, he received his bachelor's degree in chemistry from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University). During World War II, he served in the U.S. Army, where he became interested in mathematics. He then earned both a master's degree (1949) and a Ph.D. (1950) in mathematics at MIT. His doctoral dissertation was titled "On Integral Equations, Their Solution by Iteration and Analytic Continuation".
In 1952, he participated in Project Whirlwind.[2] He joined the faculty at Purdue University and then moved to the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1956. He was chair of mathematics and then the first head of the Computer Science Department. He was elected president of the Association for Computing Machinery in 1962.
He was awarded the Turing Award in 1966, according to the citation, for his influence in the area of advanced programming techniques and compiler construction. This is a reference to the work he had done as a member of the team that developed the ALGOL programming language.
In 1971, Perlis moved to Yale University to become the chair of Computer Science and hold the Eugene Higgins chair. Perlis was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1977.
In 1982, he wrote an article, Epigrams on Programming, for ACM's SIGPLAN journal, describing in one-sentence distillations many of the things he had learned about programming over his career. The epigrams have been widely quoted.[3] He remained at Yale until his death in 1990.
Publications
Publications, a selection:[4]
- 1965. An introductory course in computer programming. With Robert T. Braden.
- 1970. A view of programming languages. With Bernard A. Galler
- 1975. Introduction to computer science
- 1981. Software Metrics: An Analysis and Evaluation. With Frederick Sayward and Mary Shaw
- About Alan Perlis
- Peter J. Denning. "Alan J. Perlis—1922–1990: a founding father of computer science as a separate discipline". Communications of the ACM, Volume 33 Issue 5, May 1990.
- Cheatham, Thomas (1978). "ALGOL session". History of Programming Languages (PDF). New York, NY: ACM Press. p. 171. doi:10.1145/800025.1198357. Retrieved 2007-09-18.
References
- ↑ Ulf Hashagen, Reinhard Keil-Slawik, Arthur L. Norberg (2002) History of Computing: Software Issues. p.26
- ↑ National Academy of Engineering (1979) "Alan Jay Perlis" in: Memorial tributes. Vol 10. p.168
- ↑ Computer Science quotations
- ↑ For a listing of his talks and lectures (1951-1988) see Alan J. Perlis Papers, 1942-1989. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
External links
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Wikiquote has quotations related to: Alan Perlis |
- Oral history interview with Allen Newell at Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Newell discusses the development of the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University, including the work of Perlis and Raj Reddy, and the growth of the computer science and artificial intelligence research communities.
- Alan J. Perlis Papers, 1942-1989. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis
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