Branko Souček

Branko Souček (25 April 1930 – 12 December 2014) was a Croatian scientist, academic, pioneer of Croatian computer science. He is principally known as the author of the first Croatian-made digital computer in 1959.[1][2]

Biography

Souček was born in 1930 in Bjelovar, at that time, part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. He graduated in electrical engineering at the Zagreb University in 1955. He subsequently worked at the Ruđer Bošković institute from 1955 to 1976. On the institute he devised and led a team to construct the first digital computer in Croatia in the year 1959. He constructed the project "256-channel analizer, memory, logic and programs" and published it in the journal "Elektrotehnika" in 1959. Souček's computer was advanced for its time and it aroused global interest from the scientific circles. The director of the Brookhaven National Laboratory, William Higinbotham, personally came to Yugoslavia to see the computer.[3][4] The computer was about 2 metres high, the programmes were executed with million cycles per second, logical circuits were based on vacuum tubes. It was the recipient of numerous awards in 1960 and 1963.

He was a corresponding member of Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.[5] He was an associate member in United Nations Industrial Development Organization and International Atomic Energy Agency as well as NASA, IBM, Siemens, Schering, BNL and the Ruđer Bošković institute. He was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

His biography was included in various publications such as "International scientist 2003"; "Who's Who in the world 2001.", and "Who's Who in science and engineering 2004".[6]

Publications

References

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