Alan Perlis facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Alan J. Perlis
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| Born | April 1, 1922 |
| Died | February 7, 1990 (aged 67) New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.
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| Nationality | American |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer science |
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| Thesis | On Integral Equations, Their Solution by Iteration and Analytic Continuation (1950) |
| Doctoral advisor | Philip Franklin |
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Alan Jay Perlis (April 1, 1922 – February 7, 1990) was an American computer scientist and professor. He taught at Purdue University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Yale University. He is best known for his important work on programming languages. He was also the very first person to receive the Turing Award, which is one of the highest honors in computer science.
Biography
Alan Perlis was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He finished high school in 1939. In 1943, he earned his first degree in chemistry from the Carnegie Institute of Technology. This school is now known as Carnegie Mellon University.
During World War II, Perlis served in the U.S. Army. While in the army, he became very interested in mathematics. After the war, he continued his studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He earned a master's degree in 1949 and a Ph.D. (a higher degree) in mathematics in 1950.
In 1952, Perlis worked on an important project called Project Whirlwind. He then joined the faculty at Purdue University. In 1956, he moved to the Carnegie Institute of Technology. There, he became the head of the mathematics department. Later, he became the very first head of the computer science department. In 1962, he was chosen to be the president of the Association for Computing Machinery. This is a large group for computer professionals.
Turing Award and Programming Languages
In 1966, Alan Perlis received the first-ever Turing Award. This award is like the Nobel Prize for computer science. He received it for his work on advanced programming techniques. He was also recognized for his work on "compiler construction."
A compiler is a special computer program. It translates code written by humans into code that computers can understand. Perlis worked on something called Internal Translator in 1956. Many people, including famous computer scientist Donald Knuth, say this was the first successful compiler. Perlis was also part of the team that created the programming language ALGOL. This language was very important for how other programming languages were developed.
Later Career and Epigrams
In 1971, Perlis moved to Yale University. He became the head of the computer science department there. In 1977, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. This is a group of top engineers in the United States.
In 1982, Perlis wrote an article called "Epigrams on Programming". It was published in a journal for the Association for Computing Machinery. In this article, he shared many short, wise sayings about programming. These sayings are called epigrams. They sum up what he learned about programming during his career. Many of these epigrams are still widely quoted today.
Alan Perlis stayed at Yale University until he passed away in 1990.
See also
In Spanish: Alan Perlis para niños
