Frederick Phillips Brooks Jr. (April 19, 1931 – November 17, 2022) was an American computer architect, software engineer, and

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (a ...

, best known for managing the development of IBM's

System/360 The IBM System/360 (S/360) is a family of mainframe computer systems that was announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and delivered between 1965 and 1978. It was the first family of computers designed to cover both commercial and scientific applica ...

family of computers and the OS/360 software support package, then later writing candidly about the process in his seminal book '' The Mythical Man-Month''. In 1976, Brooks was elected as a member into the

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

for "contributions to computer system design and the development of academic programs in computer sciences". Brooks received many awards, including the National Medal of Technology in 1985 and 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 compu ...

in 1999.

Education

Born on April 19, 1931, in

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County and Wake County. With a population of 283,506 in the 2020 Census, Durham is the 4th- ...

, he attended

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist Jam ...

, graduating in 1953 with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which ...

, and he received a Ph.D. in

applied mathematics Applied mathematics is the application of mathematical methods by different fields such as physics, engineering, medicine, biology, finance, business, computer science, and industry. Thus, applied mathematics is a combination of mathemati ...

(

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

) from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...

in 1956, supervised by Howard Aiken. Brooks served as the graduate teaching assistant for Ken Iverson at Harvard's graduate program in "automatic data processing", the first such program in the world.

Career and research

Brooks joined IBM in 1956, working in

Poughkeepsie, New York Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poughkeepsie, separate from the Town of Poughkeepsie around it) is a city in the U.S. state of New York. It is the county seat of Dutchess County, with a 2020 census population of 31,577. Poughkeeps ...

, and

Yorktown, New York Yorktown is a town on the northern border of Westchester County, New York, United States. A suburb of the New York City metropolitan area, it is approximately north of midtown Manhattan. The population was 36,569 at the 2020 U.S. Census. Histo ...

. He worked on the architecture of the

IBM 7030 Stretch The IBM 7030, also known as Stretch, was IBM's first transistorized supercomputer. It was the fastest computer in the world from 1961 until the first CDC 6600 became operational in 1964."Designed by Seymour Cray, the CDC 6600 was almost three t ...

, a $10 million scientific supercomputer of which nine were sold, and the IBM 7950 Harvest computer for the National Security Agency. Subsequently, he became manager for the development of the

IBM System/360 The IBM System/360 (S/360) is a family of mainframe computer systems that was announced by IBM on April 7, 1964, and delivered between 1965 and 1978. It was the first family of computers designed to cover both commercial and scientific applic ...

family of computers and the OS/360 software package. During this time he coined the term " computer architecture". In 1964, Brooks accepted an invitation to come to the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United State ...

and founded the University's computer science department. He chaired it for 20 years. he was still engaged in active research there, primarily in

virtual environments Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video g ...

and scientific visualization. A few years after leaving IBM, he wrote '' The Mythical Man-Month''. The seed for the book was planted by IBM's then-CEO Thomas J. Watson Jr., who asked in Brooks's exit interview why it was so much harder to manage software projects than hardware projects. In this book, Brooks made the now-famous statement: "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later", which has since come to be known as Brooks's law. In addition to ''The Mythical Man-Month'', Brooks is also known for the paper "No Silver Bullet – Essence and Accident in Software Engineering". In 2004 in a talk at the

Computer History Museum The Computer History Museum (CHM) is a museum of computer history, located in Mountain View, California. The museum presents stories and artifacts of Silicon Valley and the information age, and explores the computing revolution and its impact o ...

and also in a 2010 interview in ''Wired'' magazine, Brooks was asked "What do you consider your greatest technological achievement?" Brooks responded, "The most important single decision I ever made was to change the IBM 360 series from a 6- bit

byte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable uni ...

to an 8-bit byte, thereby enabling the use of lowercase letters. That change propagated everywhere." A "20th anniversary" edition of ''The Mythical Man-Month'' with four additional chapters was published in 1995. As well as ''The Mythical Man-Month'', Brooks has authored or co-authored many books and

peer review Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer revie ...

ed papers including ''Automatic Data Processing'', "

No Silver Bullet "No Silver Bullet—Essence and Accident in Software Engineering" is a widely discussed paper on software engineering written by Turing Award winner Fred Brooks in 1986. "No Silver Bullet—Essence and Accident in Software Engineering" Brooks ar ...

", ''Computer Architecture'', and '' The Design of Design''. His contributions to human–computer interaction are described in Ben Shneiderman's HCI pioneers website.

Service and memberships

Brooks served on a number of US national boards and committees, including: *

Defense Science Board The Defense Science Board (DSB) is a committee of civilian experts appointed to advise the U.S. Department of Defense on scientific and technical matters. It was established in 1956 on the recommendation of the second Hoover Commission. Charte ...

(1983–86) * Member, Artificial Intelligence Task Force (1983–84) * Chairman, Military Software Task Force (1985–87) * Member, Computers in Simulation and Training Task Force (1986–87) * National Science Board (1987–92)

Awards and honors

In chronological order: * Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (1968) *

W. Wallace McDowell Award The W. Wallace McDowell Award is awarded by the IEEE Computer Society for outstanding theoretical, design, educational, practical, or related innovative contributions that fall within the scope of Computer Society interest. This is the highest tec ...

for Outstanding Contribution to the Computer Art, IEEE Computer Group (1970) * Computer Sciences Distinguished Information Services Award, Information Technology Professionals (1970) *

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

for studies on computer architecture and human factors of computer systems,

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

, England (1975) * Member,

(1976) * Fellow,

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, a ...

(1976) * Computer Pioneer Award, IEEE Computer Society (1982) *

National Medal of Technology and Innovation The National Medal of Technology and Innovation (formerly the National Medal of Technology) is an honor granted by the President of the United States to American inventors and innovators who have made significant contributions to the development ...

(1985) * Thomas Jefferson Award,

(1986) * Distinguished Service Award,

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 member ...

(1987) * Harry Goode Memorial Award, American Federation of Information Processing Societies (1989) * Foreign Member,

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

(1991) * Honorary Doctor of Technical Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich (1991) * IEEE John von Neumann Medal, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (1993) * Fellow (initial inductee),

(1994) * Distinguished Fellow, British Computer Society (1994) * Foreign Member of the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior ...

, UK (1994) * Allen Newell Award, Association for Computing Machinery (1994) * Bower Award and Prize in Science, Franklin Institute (1995) * CyberEdge Journal Annual Sutherland Award (April 1997) *

, Association for Computing Machinery (1999) * Member,

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nat ...

(2001) * Received the

's Fellow Award, for his contributions to computer architecture, operating systems, and software engineering. (2001) * Eckert–Mauchly Award, Association for Computing Machinery and The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers–Computer Society (2004) * IEEE Virtual Reality Career Award (2010) In January 2005, he gave the Turing Lecture on the subject of "Collaboration and Telecollaboration in Design".

Personal life

Brooks was an evangelical Christian who was active with

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA is an inter-denominational, evangelical Christian campus ministry founded in 1941, working with students and faculty on U.S. college and university campuses. InterVarsity is a charter member of the Internat ...

.Faculty Biography
at UNC. Brooks married Nancy Lee Greenwood in 1956. They have three children. He named his eldest son after

Kenneth E. Iverson Kenneth Eugene Iverson (17 December 1920 – 19 October 2004) was a Canadian computer scientist noted for the development of the programming language APL. He was honored with the Turing Award in 1979 "for his pioneering effort in programming l ...

. Brooks died on November 17, 2022, at age 91. He had been in poor health following a stroke.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Brooks, Fred 1931 births 2022 deaths American computer scientists American software engineers American technology writers Virtual reality pioneers Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Fellows of the British Computer Society IBM employees IBM Research computer scientists Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences National Medal of Technology recipients Turing Award laureates University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty Duke University Trinity College of Arts and Sciences alumni Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences alumni Writers from Durham, North Carolina 20th-century American engineers 21st-century American engineers 20th-century American mathematicians 21st-century American mathematicians 20th-century American scientists 21st-century American scientists Software engineering researchers American evangelicals