Alan Jay Perlis (April 1, 1922 – February 7, 1990) was an American

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

and professor at

Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. He is best known for his pioneering work in

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Programming languages are described in terms of their Syntax (programming languages), syntax (form) and semantics (computer science), semantics (meaning), usually def ...

s and was the first recipient of the

Turing Award The ACM A. M. Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. It is generally recognized as the highest distinction in the fi ...

Biography

Perlis was born to a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family in

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

. He graduated from

Taylor Allderdice High School Taylor Allderdice High School is a public high school in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The school was established in 1927 and is part of the Pittsburgh Public Schools district. It was named for industrialist and S ...

in 1939. In 1943, he received his

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (later renamed

). During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, he served in the U.S. Army, where he became interested in mathematics. He then earned both a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional prac ...

(1949) and a Ph.D. (1950) in

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

(MIT). His doctoral dissertation was titled "On

Integral Equations In mathematical analysis, integral equations are equations in which an unknown Function (mathematics), function appears under an integral sign. In mathematical notation, integral equations may thus be expressed as being of the form: f(x_1,x_2,x_3 ...

, Their Solution by Iteration and

Analytic Continuation In complex analysis, a branch of mathematics, analytic continuation is a technique to extend the domain of definition of a given analytic function. Analytic continuation often succeeds in defining further values of a function, for example in a ne ...

". In 1952, he participated in Project Whirlwind. He joined the faculty at

and in 1956, moved to the Carnegie Institute of Technology. He was chair of mathematics and then the first head of the

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, information, and automation. Computer science spans Theoretical computer science, theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, and information theory) to Applied science, ...

department. In 1962, he was elected president of the

Association for Computing Machinery The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a US-based international learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 and is the world's largest scientific and educational computing society. The ACM is a non-profit professional membe ...

. He was awarded the inaugural Turing Award in 1966, according to the citation, "for his influence in the area of advanced programming techniques and

compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that Translator (computing), translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primaril ...

construction." This is a reference to the work he had done on ''Internal Translator'' in 1956 (described by

Donald Knuth Donald Ervin Knuth ( ; born January 10, 1938) is an American computer scientist and mathematician. He is a professor emeritus at Stanford University. He is the 1974 recipient of the ACM Turing Award, informally considered the Nobel Prize of comp ...

as the first successful compiler), and as a member of the team that developed the programming language

ALGOL ALGOL (; short for "Algorithmic Language") is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in 1958. ALGOL heavily influenced many other languages and was the standard method for algorithm description used by the ...

. In 1971, Perlis moved to

to take the chair of computer science and hold the Eugene Higgins chair. In 1977, he was elected to the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American Nonprofit organization, nonprofit, NGO, non-governmental organization. It is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), along with the National Academ ...

. In 1982, he wrote an article, " Epigrams on Programming", for the

's (ACM)

SIGPLAN SIGPLAN is the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group (SIG) on programming languages. This SIG explores programming language concepts and tools, focusing on design, implementation, practice, and theory. Its members are progra ...

journal, describing in one-sentence distillations many of the things he had learned about programming over his career. The

epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word derives from the Greek (, "inscription", from [], "to write on, to inscribe"). This literary device has been practiced for over two millennia ...

s have been widely quoted. He remained at Yale until his death in 1990.

Publications

Publications, a selection:For a listing of his talks and lectures (1951–1988) se
Alan J. Perlis Papers, 1942–1989

Charles Babbage Institute The IT History Society (ITHS) is an organization that supports the history and scholarship of information technology by encouraging, fostering, and facilitating archival and historical research. Formerly known as the Charles Babbage Foundation, ...

, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. * 1957. ''Internal Translator (IT): A Compiler for the 650''. With J. W. Smith and H. R. Van Zoeren. * * 1965. ''An introductory course in computer programming''. With Robert T. Braden. * 1970. ''A view of programming languages''. With Bernard A. Galler * 1975. ''Introduction to computer science'' * 1977
''In Praise of APL: A Language for Lyrical Programming''
* 1978

* 1981. ''Software Metrics: An Analysis and Evaluation''. With Frederick Sayward and Mary Shaw * 1986. ''FAC: A Functional APL Language''. With Tu Hai-Chen. ;About Alan Perlis * *

References

External links

Oral history interview with Allen Newell
at

, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis. Newell discusses the development of the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University, including the work of Perlis and Raj Reddy, and the growth of the computer science and artificial intelligence research communities.
Alan J. Perlis Papers, 1942–1989

, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis {{DEFAULTSORT:Perlis, Alan Jewish American military personnel 1922 births 1990 deaths American computer scientists Carnegie Mellon University alumni Carnegie Mellon University faculty Scientists from Pittsburgh Presidents of the Association for Computing Machinery Programming language designers Turing Award laureates Yale University faculty United States Army soldiers United States Army personnel of World War II Military personnel from Pittsburgh Lisp (programming language) people American computer science educators Taylor Allderdice High School alumni Jewish American scientists

Biography

Publications

See also

References

External links