Famous 20th Century Computer Scientists

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 1 
Alan Turing
(English Mathematician Who is Considered as the Father of Theoretical Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence)
Alan Turing
69
Birthdate: June 23, 1912
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Maida Vale, London, England
Died: June 7, 1954

Regarded as the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, Alan Turing was a distinguished mathematician and logician. During WWII, he successfully broke the challenging German Enigma machine codes thereby reducing the duration of war by a couple of years. The scientist, who was convicted for being gay, has been an inspiration for numerous films, plays and novels.

 2 
Steve Wozniak
(Co-Founder of Apple Inc.)
Steve Wozniak
21
Birthdate: August 11, 1950
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: San Jose, California, United States

Widely recognized as one of the two important pioneers of the personal computer revolution, Steve Wozniak is credited with co-founding Apple Inc. along with Steve Jobs. Not surprisingly, he has been described as one of the men that changed the course of history through technology. Apart from being a programmer and technology entrepreneur, Steve Wozniak is also a well-known philanthropist.

 3 
Tim Berners-Lee
(Computer Scientist and Inventor of the World Wide Web)
Tim Berners-Lee
39
Birthdate: June 8, 1955
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: London, England

Widely known as ten inventor of the world wide web, Tim Berners-Lee made the first communication between an HTTP client and server through the internet in 1989. He is associated with various organizations, such as the W3C and the World Wide Web Foundation, and has received the knighthood, too.

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 4 
Grace Hopper
(Computer Scientist, Mathematician and One of the First Programmers of the ‘Harvard Mark I’ Computer)
Grace Hopper
36
Birthdate: December 9, 1906
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: New York, New York, United States
Died: January 1, 1992
Computer scientist and U.S. Navy rear admiral Grace Hopper was one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computing system. She pioneered the machine-independent programming language technique, and the FLOW-MATIC language used by her was later used to create COBOL. She received a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom.
 5 
Claude Shannon
(Mathematician, Engineer & Cryptographer Known as a 'Father of Information Theory')
Claude Shannon
19
Birthdate: April 30, 1916
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Petoskey, Michigan, United States
Died: February 24, 2001

Claude Shannon was an electrical engineer, mathematician, and cryptographer. He is credited with publishing the article A Mathematical Theory of Communication which gave rise to the field of information theory. Hence, Shannon is considered the father of information theory. He is also credited with founding digital circuit design theory. During World War II, he contributed to the field of cryptanalysis.

 6 
Vint Cerf
(Computer scientist)
Vint Cerf
15
Birthdate: June 23, 1943
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: New Haven, Connecticut, United States
 7 
Ken Thompson
(Computer Scientist)
Ken Thompson
15
Birthdate: February 4, 1943
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: New Orleans, Louisiana, United States
Height: 6'8" (203 cm)
 8 
Marvin Minsky
(Mathematician, Computer scientist, University teacher)
Marvin Minsky
15
Birthdate: August 9, 1927
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: New York City
Died: January 24, 2016
 9 
Dennis Ritchie
(American Computer Scientist Known for Creating the C Programming Language)
Dennis Ritchie
21
Birthdate: September 9, 1941
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Bronxville, New York, United States
Died: October 12, 2011

Computer scientist, Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie, worked at Bell Labs Computing Sciences Research Center for most of his career, co-developing the Unix operating system and B programming language with Kenneth Thompson, co-winning the 1983 A.M. Turing Award for it. Earlier, he had also created C programming language and was involved with the development of the Plan 9 and Inferno operating systems.

 10 
John McCarthy
(Mathematician, Computer scientist, Engineer, University teacher)
John McCarthy
13
Birthdate: September 4, 1927
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Boston
Died: October 24, 2011
 11 
James Gosling
(Programmer, Inventor, Computer scientist)
James Gosling
17
Birthdate: May 19, 1955
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Calgary

James Gosling earned the nickname Dr. Java after he revolutionized the world of computer programming with his Java programming language. The Carnegie Mellon alumnus has had a 26-year stint with Sun Microsystems. The computer nerd has a picture of the first 1000 digits of √2 framed in his office.

 12 
Shigeru Miyamoto
(Video Game Designer, Artist)
Shigeru Miyamoto
36
Birthdate: November 16, 1952
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Sonobe
Japanese game designer Shigeru Miyamoto is the man behind games such as Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Donkey Kong. He has been the general manager and senior MD at Nintendo and now serves as its representative director and creative fellow. He avoids appearing on TV or giving autographs.
 13 
Alan Kay
(Computer Scientist)
Alan Kay
15
Birthdate: May 17, 1940
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Springfield, Massachusetts
 14 
John von Neumann
(Great Mathematician Who Were Equally at Home in Pure and Applied Mathematics)
John von Neumann
17
Birthdate: December 28, 1903
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Budapest, Hungary
Died: February 8, 1957
Hungarian-American scientist John von Neumann contributed to the development of game theory and the concept of self-replication. His work covered vast areas including math, economics, physics, and computer science. His research on nuclear physics led him to be part of the advisory committee of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.
 15 
Gabe Newell
(Entrepreneur)
Gabe Newell
24
Birthdate: November 3, 1962
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Seattle, Washington

Businessman Gabe Newell is the co-founder and president of the video game developer and digital distribution company, Valve. As a young man, he worked for Microsoft for several years before he quit to found his own venture. He was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame in 2013.

 16 
Bill Gates
(Co-Founder of Microssoft)
Bill Gates
22
Birthdate: October 28, 1955
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Seattle, Washington, United States

Leading American technologist, business leader and philanthropist, Bill Gates is the co-founder of the world’s largest software company, Microsoft. His passion for computers made him one of the richest in the world and through his charity foundation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, he and his ex-wife, Melinda, use this money generously to help people world over live a better life.

 17 
Margaret Hamilton
(American Computer Scientist, Systems Engineer, and Business Owner)
Margaret Hamilton
15
Birthdate: August 17, 1936
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Paoli, Indiana, United States

Credited with coining the term software engineering, computer scientist and systems engineer, Margaret Heafield Hamilton served as the Director of the Software Engineering Division of the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, overseeing the development of the on-board flight software for NASA's Apollo program.  A prolific writer, she is also the founder of two software companies; Higher Order Software and Hamilton Technologies.

 18 
Leslie Lamport
(Mathematician, Computer scientist, Programmer, Engineer, Writer)
Leslie Lamport
3
Birthdate: February 7, 1941
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: New York City
 19 
Tony Hoare
(Computer scientist)
Tony Hoare
14
Birthdate: January 11, 1934
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Colombo, Sri Lanka

Tony Hoare is a British computer scientist who is credited with developing the sorting algorithm quicksort. He is also credited with developing Hoare logic, a formal system for verifying program correctness. Over the years, Tony Hoare has received several prestigious awards for his contribution to computer science.

 20 
John Carmack
(Chief technology officer, Aerospace engineer, Programmer, Computer scientist)
John Carmack
11
Birthdate: August 20, 1970
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Kansas City

Computer-game developer John Carmack introduced pioneering innovations in the 3-D game arena. He specializes in first-person shooter games, such as Quake and Doom. The id Software founder had spent a year in a juvenile home and had later dropped out of university to become a freelance programmer.

 21 
Vitalik Buterin
(Computer scientist)
Vitalik Buterin
21
Birthdate: January 31, 1994
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Kolomna, Russia
 22 
Donald Knuth
(Mathematician and Computer Scientist Known for His Multivolume Series of Books “The Art of Computer Programming”)
Donald Knuth
13
Birthdate: January 10, 1938
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States

Mathematician and computer scientist Donald Ervin Knuth is best known for his contribution to the development of the rigorous analysis of the computational complexity of algorithms. Also the creator of the TeX computer typesetting system as well as the WEB and CWEB computer programming systems, he has published twenty books, most significant among them being The Art of Computer Programming.

 23 
Judea Pearl
(Computer Scientist)
Judea Pearl
6
Birthdate: September 4, 1936
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Tel Aviv, Israel

A.M. Turing Award-winning Israeli-American computer scientist Judea Pearl is known for his work on artificial intelligence and for creating the Bayesian network. He has penned several books on causality, too. He is also known as the father of Daniel Pearl, the journalist who was beheaded by Islamic terrorists in Pakistan.

 24 
George Dantzig
(American Mathematical Scientist)
George Dantzig
7
Birthdate: November 8, 1914
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Portland, Oregon, United States
Died: May 13, 2005

Mathematician George Dantzig, known for his research on linear programming, was the first to develop the simplex method. The National Medal of Science winner was the son of mathematician and linguist Tobias Dantzig. He was associated with RAND Corporation and also taught computer science and operations research at Stanford.

 25 
Geoffrey Hinton
(Computer scientist)
Geoffrey Hinton
8
Birthdate: December 6, 1947
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Wimbledon

After gaining a degree in psychology, Geoffrey Hinton earned a PhD in artificial intelligence. The Google VP is a Turing Award-winning computer scientist and also teaches at the University of Toronto. A Fellow of the Royal Society, he has revolutionized neural network research and has co-written about 200 papers.

 26 
Guido van Rossum
(Dutch Programmer Known for Creating the 'Python' Programming Language)
Guido van Rossum
16
Birthdate: January 31, 1956
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Haarlem, Netherlands
Dutch programmer Guido van Rossum is known as the inventor of the Python programming language. He has also worked with Google and Dropbox earlier. In November 2020, he announced he announced his decision to join the Developer Division of Microsoft. He has won several honors, such as the NLUUG Award.
 27 
Ray Kurzweil
(Computer scientist and Futurist)
Ray Kurzweil
5
Birthdate: February 12, 1948
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: New York City, New York, United States

Ray Kurzweil is an American futurist and inventor best known for his work in fields like optical character recognition, speech recognition technology, and text-to-speech synthesis. A proponent of life extension technologies and robotics, Kurzweil was honored with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 1999. In 2002, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

 28 
Edsger W. Dijkstra
(Dutch Mathematician and Computer Scientist Best Known for His Shortest-Path Algorithm in Graph Theory)
Edsger W. Dijkstra
9
Birthdate: May 11, 1930
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Rotterdam, Netherlands
Died: August 6, 2002

A pioneering computer scientist from the Netherlands, Edsger W. Dijkstra had initially studied theoretical physics, before focusing on computers. He developed the domain of structured programming and also won honors such as the Turing Award. He died at 72, after a long struggle with cancer.

 29 
Sudha Murty
(Author)
Sudha Murty
4
Birthdate: August 19, 1950
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Shiggaon, Haveri, Karnataka, India

Known for her humility and simplicity, Indian philanthropist and author Sudha Murty had humble beginnings as a TELCO engineer. She is married to Infosys co-founder Narayan Murty and heads the Infosys Foundation. The Padma Shri winner has penned over 200 titles, such as Dollar Bahu, in both Kannada and English.

 30 
Shawn Fanning
(Computer scientist, Programmer)
Shawn Fanning
6
Birthdate: November 22, 1980
Sun Sign: Sagittarius
Birthplace: Brockton

Computer programmer and entrepreneur Shawn Fanning revolutionized the world of information technology by developing a program that let users share MP3 copies of music from their personal computers with others on the internet. His invention led to the formation of Napster and got him featured on the cover of Time.

 31 
Bjarne Stroustrup
(Computer scientist, Engineer, Scientist, Programmer, Writer, University teacher)
Bjarne Stroustrup
18
Birthdate: December 30, 1950
Sun Sign: Capricorn
Birthplace: Aarhus

Bjarne Stroustrup is a Danish computer scientist best known for his invention and development of the popular C++ general-purpose programming language. He is currently working as a managing director at Morgan Stanley in New York, apart from serving as a visiting professor at the prestigious Columbia University. 

 32 
Niklaus Wirth
(Swiss Computer Scientist)
Niklaus Wirth
4
Birthdate: February 15, 1934
Sun Sign: Aquarius
Birthplace: Winterthur, Switzerland

Turing Award-winning Swiss computer scientist Niklaus Wirth revolutionized information technology with his invention of computer languages such as ALGOL-W, PASCAL, and MODULA. He has also taught at Stanford and ETH Zürich and penned a number of books on algorithms and data structures. He has also popularized Wirth's law.

 33 
Sophie Wilson
(English Computer Scientist)
Sophie Wilson
8
Birthdate: 1957 AD
Birthplace: Leeds, Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom

The brain behind the Acorn Micro-Computer, Sophie Wilson also contributed to the BBC Micro and ARM architecture. During her first summer vacation at Cambridge, she designed an automated cow-feeder. Born Roger Wilson, she went through a sex-change surgery in 1994. She is also associated with local theater groups.

 34 
Adi Shamir
(Mathematician, Cryptologist, Computer scientist)
Adi Shamir
8
Birthdate: July 6, 1952
Sun Sign: Cancer
Birthplace: Tel Aviv

Turing Award-winning Israeli cryptographer Adi Shamir is one of the co-inventors of RSA encryption. He also owns patents to more than a dozen more inventions. He has been associated with the University of Warwick and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and has also taught at the Weizmann Institute.

 35 
David Filo
(Entrepreneur, Businessperson, Merchant, Computer scientist)
David Filo
6
Birthdate: April 20, 1966
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Wisconsin
 36 
Ivan Sutherland
(Computer scientist)
Ivan Sutherland
4
Birthdate: May 16, 1938
Sun Sign: Taurus
Birthplace: Hastings, Nebraska, United States
 37 
Ed Boon
(Programmer, Engineer, Screenwriter, Computer scientist)
Ed Boon
5
Birthdate: February 22, 1964
Sun Sign: Pisces
Birthplace: Chicago
 38 
Lawrence Lessig
(Jurist, Activist, Lawyer, Non-fiction writer, Computer scientist, Politician, Professor)
Lawrence Lessig
12
Birthdate: June 3, 1961
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Rapid City

Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig established Creative Commons, a non-profit geared at reducing copyright restrictions, thus helping artists and creative professional share their works legally. A Democrat, he also co-founded Rootstrikers, aimed at combating corruption in Congress. He is also a TED speaker and has penned books such as Lesterland.

 39 
Whitfield Diffie
(Cryptographer and one of the pioneers of public-key cryptography along with Martin Hellman and Ralph Merkle)
Whitfield Diffie
2
Birthdate: June 5, 1944
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Washington, D.C., United States
 40 
Gottfrid Svartholm
(Computer scientist)
Gottfrid Svartholm
15
Birthdate: October 17, 1984
Sun Sign: Libra
Birthplace: Sweden

Gottfrid Svartholm is a Swedish computer specialist best known as the ex-co-owner of the web hosting company and Internet service provider PRQ. He is also credited with co-founding The Pirate Bay along with Peter Sunde and Fredrik Neij. In 2014, Gottfrid Svartholm was imprisoned for his connection with WikiLeaks and released the following year.

 41 
Barbara Liskov
(Computer scientist)
Barbara Liskov
4
Birthdate: November 7, 1939
Sun Sign: Scorpio
Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, United States
 42 
Andy Rubin
(Computer programmer)
Andy Rubin
9
Birthdate: 1963 AD
Birthplace: Chappaqua, New York, United States

Andy Rubin earned the nickname Android during his time at Apple due to his obsession with robots and later co-founded Android Inc., becoming its CEO. He worked with Google for 9 years but quit the company amid sexual harassment allegations and an employee walk-out over his supposed exit package.

 43 
David Packard
(Entrepreneur, Engineer, Computer scientist)
David Packard
3
Birthdate: September 7, 1912
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Pueblo
Died: March 26, 1996
 44 
Alonzo Church
(Mathematician, Philosopher, University teacher, Computer scientist)
Alonzo Church
3
Birthdate: June 14, 1903
Sun Sign: Gemini
Birthplace: Washington, D.C.
Died: August 11, 1995
 45 
Andy Hertzfeld
(Computer scientist, Engineer, Programmer)
Andy Hertzfeld
5
Birthdate: April 6, 1953
Sun Sign: Aries
Birthplace: Philadelphia

Andy Hertzfeld is an innovator and software engineer. During the 1980s, Hertzfeld was one of the members of the Apple Macintosh development team. He is also credited with co-founding companies like Radius, General Magic, and Eazel. From 2005 to 2013, he contributed to the development of Google+. Elden Henson and Michael Stuhlbarg portrayed him in Jobs and Steve Jobs respectively.

 46 
Mark Shuttleworth
(Entrepreneur, Astronaut, Engineer, Inventor, Scientist, Blogger, Businessperson, Computer scientist)
Mark Shuttleworth
8
Birthdate: September 18, 1973
Sun Sign: Virgo
Birthplace: Welkom

Mark Shuttleworth is a South African-British entrepreneur. He is credited with founding Canonical, the company that developed the popular Linux-based Ubuntu operating system. Mark Shuttleworth became the first African from an independent country and the first South African to travel to space; he traveled as a space tourist in 2002.

 47 
Sergey Brin
(Co-Founder of 'Google')
Sergey Brin
18
Birthdate: August 21, 1973
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Moscow, Russia
Google co-founder Sergey Brin also served as the president of Alphabet Inc. The seventh-richest person in the world as of 2020, Brin earlier dropped his PhD plans at Stanford, following which he and Larry Page launched Google in a garage. He is a devoted philanthropist and a Democratic Party donor.
 48 
Clive Sinclair
(Entrepreneur, Engineer, Inventor, Computer scientist)
Clive Sinclair
5
Birthdate: July 30, 1940
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Surrey

A consumer electronics pioneer, entrepreneur Clive Sinclair began his business venture selling radio and amplifier kits. He went on to launch the word’s first pocket calculator and later also worked on products such as digital watches and pocket TV. He is a fan of poker and is a Mensa member.

 49 
Luis von Ahn
(Entrepreneur)
Luis von Ahn
3
Birthdate: August 9, 1978
Sun Sign: Leo
Birthplace: Guatemala City, Guatemala
 50 
Timnit Gebru
(Computer scientist)
Timnit Gebru
5
Birthdate: 1983 AD
Birthplace: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia