Adam Kazimierz Kolawa (June 25, 1957 – April 26, 2011) was CEO and co-founder of

Parasoft Parasoft (officially Parasoft Corporation) is an independent software vendor specializing in automated software testing and application security with headquarters in Monrovia, California. It was founded in 1987 by four graduates of the Californi ...

, a software company in Monrovia, CA that makes software development tools.

History

Kolawa received a M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering from the

AGH University of Science and Technology AGH University of Krakow, (abbreviated as ''AGH University''; formerly: AGH University of Science and Technology or ''AGH UST'') is a public university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1913, its inauguration took place in 1919. The university foc ...

in 1981 and a M.Sc. in physics from

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (, UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by Casimir III the Great, King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and one of the List of oldest universities in con ...

in 1982.Interview: Adam Kolawa, Parasoft
in socaltech.com, February 9, 2004 After Kolawa emigrated from Poland to the United States, he earned a Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

. While at Caltech, he worked with Geoffrey Fox and helped design and implement the Intel hypercube

parallel computer Parallel computing is a type of computation in which many calculations or processes are carried out simultaneously. Large problems can often be divided into smaller ones, which can then be solved at the same time. There are several different for ...

known as the

Cosmic Cube The Cosmic Cube is a fictional object appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. There are multiple Cubes in the Marvel Universe, all of which are depicted as containment devices that can empower whoever wields them. Although th ...

. In 1987, he founded Parasoft with four friends from Caltech. Initially, the company focused on parallel processing technologies. Kolawa co-authored two books on

development testing Development testing is a software development process that involves synchronized application of a broad spectrum of defect prevention and detection strategies in order to reduce software development risks, time, and costs. Depending on the organ ...

and

software testing Software testing is the act of checking whether software satisfies expectations. Software testing can provide objective, independent information about the Quality (business), quality of software and the risk of its failure to a User (computin ...

. In 2001, Kolawa was awarded the Los Angeles Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the Software category. Kolawa was granted 20 patents for software technologies he has invented. His patents include runtime memory error detection technology (Patent and – granted in 1998), statically analyzing source code quality using rules (Patent – granted in 1999), and automated unit test case generation technology (Patent and – granted in 1998). Kolawa died suddenly on April 26, 2011. "Remembering Adam Kolawa From Parasoft"
by Alan Zeichick, SD Times, May 2, 2011

Publications

Books

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References

External links

Parasoft Executive Biographies

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kolawa, Adam Businesspeople in software American computer businesspeople American technology chief executives California Institute of Technology alumni American technology writers 1957 births 2011 deaths