Hermann Bottenbruch (14 September 1928 – 20 May 2019) was a German mathematician and

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 ...

Biography

Bottenbruch grew up in . Toward the end of

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 as a . In 1947, he began the study of mathematics at the where he graduated in 1951. Following graduation, he joined the staff of the Institute for Applied Mathematics at the (TU Darmstadt). The institute was founded by Alwin Walther. Bottenbruch earned his doctorate there in 1957. In the same year on Walther's recommendation he joined the international working group to develop a new programming language. This language was intended to combine then current understanding of programming languages into one standard. According to Friedrich Bauer, Bottenbruch coined the name ''

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 ...

'', at least for Germany, from the English ''Algorithmic Language''. In 1958, the members of the working group met at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (

ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...

), including Friedrich L. Bauer, Bottenbruch,

Heinz Rutishauser Heinz Rutishauser (30 January 1918 – 10 November 1970) was a Swiss people, Swiss mathematician and a pioneer of modern numerical mathematics and computer science. Life Rutishauser's father died when he was 13 years old and his mother died t ...

, Klaus Samelson, John Backus,

Charles Katz Charles Abraham Katz (July 7, 1927 – May 9, 1974) was an American mathematician and computer scientist known for his contributions to early compiler development in the 1950s. Katz received two degrees in mathematics, a Bachelor of Science (B.S ...

, Alan Perlis, and

Joseph Henry Wegstein Joseph Henry Wegstein (April 7, 1922 – August 16, 1985) was an American computer scientist. Biography Wegstein was born on April 7, 1922 in Washburn, Illinois. He attended the University of Illinois, where he earned a Bachelor of Science (B.S. ...

. The result of their deliberations was ALGOL 58. In 1960 and 1961, Bottenbruch worked in the United States at

Oak Ridge National Laboratory Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is a federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, United States. Founded in 1943, the laboratory is sponsored by the United Sta ...

(ORNL). After that, he took a leading position in German industry where, among other things, he served as a specialist in the field of flue-gas stack (industrial chimney) construction. In 1994, he founded his own company, Primasoft GmbH, in the German city of

Oberhausen Oberhausen (, ) is a city on the river Emscher in the Ruhr Area, Germany, located between Duisburg and Essen ( ). The city hosts the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen and its Gasometer Oberhausen is an anchor point of the European Rout ...

, providing

information technology consulting In management, information technology consulting (also called IT consulting, computer consultancy, business and technology services, computing consultancy, technology consulting, and IT advisory) is a field of activity which focuses on advising or ...

including

database In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and a ...

Publications

*''Construction of command languages and their translation into the program language of Turing machines: applications of logic to advanced digital computer programming'', 1957 *''Proposal for a universal language for the description of computing processes''. 1958. Zusammen mit Friedrich L. Bauer,

und Klaus Samelson *''Structure and use of ALGOL 60'', 1961 *''Industrieschornsteine. Wirkung, Planung, Konstruktion. Tagungsleitung'', Deutsche Bauindustrie. Bundesfachabteilung Feuerfest- und Schornsteinbau *''Begutachten, Sanieren und Umbauen freistehender Schornsteine in Massivbauart''. Arbeitstagung, Essen 1986

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bottenbruch, Hermann 1928 births 2019 deaths German computer scientists 20th-century German mathematicians Programming language designers People from Mülheim University of Bonn alumni Technische Universität Darmstadt alumni Oak Ridge National Laboratory people German company founders Technology company founders Academic staff of Technische Universität Darmstadt 21st-century German mathematicians Luftwaffenhelfer