Turing Award facts for kids

Quick facts for kids ACM Turing Award
Alan Turing, the award's namesake
Presented by	Association for Computing Machinery
Country	United States
Reward	US$1,000,000

The ACM A. M. Turing Award is a special prize given every year by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). It honors people who have made very important and lasting contributions to computer science. Many people call it the "Nobel Prize of Computing" because it's the highest award in this field.

As of 2025, 79 people have received this award. The most recent winners were Andrew Barto and Richard S. Sutton in 2024.

The award is named after Alan Turing. He was a brilliant British mathematician and is often called the "Father of Computer Science." Turing helped create the ideas behind theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence. He also played a key role in breaking the Enigma cipher during World War II.

From 2007 to 2013, the award came with a prize of $250,000, supported by Intel and Google. Since 2014, the prize has been $1 million, funded by Google.

The first person to receive the award was Alan Perlis in 1966. The youngest winner was Donald Knuth, who was 36 years old in 1974. The oldest winner was Alfred Aho, who was 79 in 2020. Only three women have won the award: Frances Allen (2006), Barbara Liskov (2008), and Shafi Goldwasser (2012).

Turing Award Winners

Winners of the ACM Turing Award

Year	Recipient(s)	Photo	Why They Won	Where They Worked
1966	Perlis, AlanAlan Perlis		"For his important work in advanced computer programming and building compilers."	Carnegie Mellon University
1967	Wilkes, MauriceMaurice Wilkes		"He built and designed the EDSAC, one of the first computers that could store its own programs. He also helped introduce program libraries."	University of Cambridge
1968	Hamming, RichardRichard Hamming		"For his work on numerical methods, automatic coding, and error-correcting codes."	Bell Labs
1969	Minsky, MarvinMarvin Minsky		"For his key role in creating and advancing the field of artificial intelligence."	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1970	Wilkinson, James H.James H. Wilkinson		"For his research in numerical analysis that made high-speed computers easier to use, especially in linear algebra."	National Physical Laboratory
1971	McCarthy, JohnJohn McCarthy		"For his important work in artificial intelligence."	Stanford University
1972	Dijkstra, Edsger W.Edsger W. Dijkstra		"He helped develop ALGOL, a clear and strong programming language. He also greatly improved our understanding of programming languages."	Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica Eindhoven University of Technology University of Texas at Austin
1973	Bachman, CharlesCharles Bachman		"For his excellent work in database technology."	General Electric Research Laboratory
1974	Knuth, DonaldDonald Knuth		"For his big contributions to understanding analysis of algorithms and designing programming languages, especially through his famous books, 'The Art of Computer Programming'."	California Institute of Technology Center for Communications Research Stanford University
1975	Newell, AllenAllen Newell		"For their joint work over twenty years, making key contributions to artificial intelligence, how humans think, and list processing."	RAND Corporation Carnegie Mellon University
	Simon, Herbert A.Herbert A. Simon
1976	Rabin, Michael O.Michael O. Rabin		"For their paper that introduced the idea of nondeterministic machines, which inspired much work in computer science."	Princeton University
	Scott, DanaDana Scott			University of Chicago
1977	Backus, JohnJohn Backus		"For his deep and lasting contributions to designing useful high-level programming systems, especially FORTRAN, and for his work on how to formally describe programming languages."	IBM
1978	Floyd, Robert W.Robert W. Floyd		"For his clear impact on how to create efficient and reliable software. He also helped start important areas like parsing, programming language semantics, and analysis of algorithms."	Carnegie Mellon University Stanford University
1979	Iverson, Kenneth E.Kenneth E. Iverson		"For his pioneering work in programming languages and math notation, leading to APL. Also for his work on interactive systems and programming language theory."	IBM
1980	Hoare, TonyTony Hoare		"For his key contributions to defining and designing programming languages."	Queen's University Belfast University of Oxford
1981	Codd, Edgar F.Edgar F. Codd		"For his fundamental work on database management systems, especially relational databases."	IBM
1982	Cook, StephenStephen Cook		"For greatly improving our understanding of how complex computations are."	University of Toronto
1983	Ritchie, DennisDennis Ritchie		"For developing general ideas about operating systems and specifically for creating the UNIX operating system."	Bell Labs
	Thompson, KenKen Thompson
1984	Wirth, NiklausNiklaus Wirth		"For creating a series of new computer languages like EULER, ALGOL-W, Pascal, MODULA, and Oberon."	Stanford University University of Zurich ETH Zurich
1985	Karp, Richard M.Richard M. Karp		"For his ongoing work in the theory of algorithms, including efficient algorithms for network flow and his contributions to NP-completeness."	University of California, Berkeley
1986	Hopcroft, JohnJohn Hopcroft		"For their fundamental achievements in designing and analyzing algorithms and data structures."	Cornell University
	Tarjan, RobertRobert Tarjan			Stanford University Cornell University University of California, Berkeley Princeton University
1987	Cocke, JohnJohn Cocke		"For important contributions to designing compilers, large computer systems, and reduced instruction set computers (RISC)."	IBM
1988	Sutherland, IvanIvan Sutherland		"For his pioneering work and vision in computer graphics, starting with Sketchpad."	Stanford University Harvard University University of Utah California Institute of Technology
1989	Kahan, WilliamWilliam Kahan		"For his fundamental contributions to numerical analysis. He is an expert on floating-point computations."	University of California, Berkeley
1990	Corbató, Fernando J.Fernando J. Corbató		"For his pioneering work in creating large-scale, general-purpose time-sharing computer systems like CTSS and Multics."	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
1991	Milner, RobinRobin Milner		"For three key achievements: LCF (a tool for machine-assisted proof), ML (a language with type inference), and CCS (a theory of concurrency)."	Stanford University University of Edinburgh
1992	Lampson, ButlerButler Lampson		"For his contributions to developing distributed personal computing environments, including workstations, networks, operating systems, and security."	PARC DEC
1993	Hartmanis, JurisJuris Hartmanis		"For their important paper that laid the groundwork for the field of computational complexity theory."	General Electric Research Laboratory
	Stearns, Richard E.Richard E. Stearns
1994	Feigenbaum, EdwardEdward Feigenbaum		"For pioneering the design of large artificial intelligence systems, showing their practical and commercial importance."	Stanford University
	Reddy, RajRaj Reddy			Stanford University Carnegie Mellon University
1995	Blum, ManuelManuel Blum		"For his contributions to the basics of computational complexity theory and how it applies to cryptography and program checking."	University of California, Berkeley
1996	Pnueli, AmirAmir Pnueli		"For introducing temporal logic into computer science and for his excellent work in verifying programs and systems."	Stanford University Tel Aviv University Weizmann Institute of Science Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences
1997	Engelbart, DouglasDouglas Engelbart		"For his inspiring vision of interactive computing and inventing key technologies to make it happen."	SRI International Tymshare McDonnell Douglas Bootstrap Institute/Alliance, The Doug Engelbart Institute
1998	Gray, JimJim Gray		"For his important contributions to database and transaction processing research, and for leading system development."	IBM Microsoft
1999	Brooks, FredFred Brooks		"For his landmark contributions to computer architecture, operating systems, and software engineering."	IBM University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2000	Yao, AndrewAndrew Yao		"For his fundamental contributions to the theory of computation, including pseudorandom number generation, cryptography, and communication complexity."	Stanford University University of California, Berkeley Princeton University
2001	Dahl, Ole-JohanOle-Johan Dahl		"For their ideas that led to object-oriented programming, through their design of the programming languages Simula I and Simula 67."	Norwegian Computing Center University of Oslo
	Nygaard, KristenKristen Nygaard
2002	Adleman, LeonardLeonard Adleman		"For their clever work that made public-key cryptography useful in real life, especially the RSA algorithm."	University of Southern California
	Rivest, RonRon Rivest			Massachusetts Institute of Technology
	Shamir, AdiAdi Shamir
2003	Kay, AlanAlan Kay		"For pioneering many ideas in object-oriented programming languages, leading the team that developed Smalltalk, and for his contributions to personal computing."	University of Utah PARC Stanford University Atari Apple ATG Walt Disney Imagineering Viewpoints Research Institute HP Labs
2004	Cerf, VintVint Cerf		"For their pioneering work on internetworking, including designing the Internet's basic communication rules, TCP/IP, and for their leadership in networking."	University of California, Los Angeles Stanford University, DARPA MCI CNRI, Google
	Kahn, BobBob Kahn			Massachusetts Institute of Technology Bolt Beranek and Newman DARPA CNRI
2005	Naur, PeterPeter Naur		"For his fundamental contributions to programming language design, defining ALGOL 60, designing compilers, and the art of computer programming."	Regnecentralen University of Copenhagen
2006	Allen, FrancesFrances Allen		"For her pioneering work in optimizing compiler techniques, which helped create modern optimizing compilers and automatic parallel execution."	IBM
2007	Clarke, Edmund M.Edmund M. Clarke		"For developing model checking into a very effective way to check hardware and software, widely used in industries."	Harvard University Carnegie Mellon University
	Emerson, E. AllenE. Allen Emerson			Harvard University University of Texas at Austin
	Sifakis, JosephJoseph Sifakis			French National Centre for Scientific Research
2008	Liskov, BarbaraBarbara Liskov		"For her contributions to the practical and theoretical foundations of programming language and system design, especially related to data abstraction, fault tolerance, and distributed computing."	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2009	Thacker, Charles P.Charles P. Thacker		"For designing and building the Xerox Alto, the first modern personal computer. Also for his work on Ethernet and the Tablet PC."	PARC DEC Microsoft Research
2010	Valiant, LeslieLeslie Valiant		"For his groundbreaking contributions to the theory of computation, including the theory of PAC learning and parallel computing."	Harvard University
2011	Pearl, JudeaJudea Pearl		"For his fundamental contributions to artificial intelligence by developing ways to reason with probabilities and causes."	University of California, Los Angeles New Jersey Institute of Technology
2012	Goldwasser, ShafiShafi Goldwasser		"For their transformative work that created the complexity theory foundations for cryptography and new ways to verify mathematical proofs."	Massachusetts Institute of Technology Weizmann Institute of Science
	Micali, SilvioSilvio Micali			Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2013	Lamport, LeslieLeslie Lamport		"For his fundamental contributions to the theory and practice of distributed and concurrent systems, including ideas like logical clocks and replicated state machines."	Massachusetts Computer Associates SRI International DEC Compaq Microsoft Research
2014	Stonebraker, MichaelMichael Stonebraker		"For his fundamental contributions to the ideas and practices behind modern database systems."	University of California, Berkeley Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2015	Diffie, WhitfieldWhitfield Diffie		"For their fundamental contributions to modern cryptography. Their 1976 paper introduced public-key cryptography and digital signatures, which are key to Internet security today."	Stanford University
	Hellman, MartinMartin Hellman
2016	Berners-Lee, TimTim Berners-Lee		"For inventing the World Wide Web, the first web browser, and the basic rules that allowed the Web to grow so much."	CERN Massachusetts Institute of Technology World Wide Web Consortium
2017	Hennessy, John L.John L. Hennessy		"For pioneering a systematic way to design and evaluate computer architectures, which had a lasting impact on the microprocessor industry."	Stanford University
	Patterson, DavidDavid Patterson			University of California, Berkeley
2018	Bengio, YoshuaYoshua Bengio		"For their breakthroughs in deep neural networks, making them a crucial part of computing today."	Université de Montréal, McGill University, Mila
	Hinton, GeoffreyGeoffrey Hinton			University of Toronto University of California, San Diego Carnegie Mellon University University College London University of Edinburgh Google AI
	LeCun, YannYann LeCun			University of Toronto Bell Labs Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University Meta AI
2019	Catmull, EdwinEdwin Catmull		"For their fundamental contributions to 3-D computer graphics and how these techniques changed computer-generated imagery (CGI) in movies and other uses."	University of Utah Pixar Walt Disney Animation Studios
	Hanrahan, PatPat Hanrahan			Pixar Princeton University Stanford University
2020	Aho, AlfredAlfred Aho		"For their fundamental algorithms and theories that help implement programming languages. Their influential books taught generations of computer scientists."	Bell Labs Columbia University
	Ullman, JeffreyJeffrey Ullman			Bell Labs Princeton University Stanford University
2021	Dongarra, JackJack Dongarra		"For his pioneering work on numerical algorithms and libraries that helped high-performance computing software keep up with faster hardware for over forty years."	Argonne National Laboratory Oak Ridge National Laboratory University of Manchester Texas A&M University Institute for Advanced Study University of Tennessee Rice University
2022	Metcalfe, RobertRobert Metcalfe		"For inventing, standardizing, and making Ethernet a commercial success."	Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Xerox PARC, University of Texas at Austin
2023	Wigderson, AviAvi Wigderson		"For changing our understanding of how randomness affects computation, and for his long-term leadership in theoretical computer science."	Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
2024	Barto, AndrewAndrew Barto		"For developing the main ideas and algorithms behind reinforcement learning."	University of Massachusetts Amherst
	Sutton, Richard S.Richard S. Sutton			University of Alberta Amii

More About Computer Awards

See also

In Spanish: Premio Turing para niños