William Allan Wulf (December 8, 1939 – March 10, 2023) 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 ...

notable for his 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

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 ...

Early life and education

Born in Chicago, Wulf attended the

University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the fo ...

, receiving a

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

(B.S.) in

engineering physics Engineering physics (EP), sometimes engineering science, is the field of study combining pure science disciplines (such as physics, mathematics, chemistry or biology) and engineering disciplines (computer, nuclear, electrical, aerospace, medic ...

in 1961 and a

Master of Science A Master of Science (; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree. In contrast to the Master of Arts degree, the Master of Science degree is typically granted for studies in sciences, engineering and medici ...

(M.S.) in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

in 1963. He then achieved the first

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

(Ph.D.) in

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, ...

from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

in 1968.

Career

In 1970, while at

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 ...

(CMU), he designed the

BLISS BLISS is a system programming language developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) by W. A. Wulf, D. B. Russell, and A. N. Habermann around 1970. It was perhaps the best known system language until C debuted a few years later. Since then, C ...

programming language and developed an

optimizing compiler An optimizing compiler is a compiler designed to generate code that is optimized in aspects such as minimizing program execution time, memory usage, storage size, and power consumption. Optimization is generally implemented as a sequence of op ...

for it. From 1971 to 1975, as part of CMUs C.mmp project, he worked on an

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

(OS)

microkernel In computer science, a microkernel (often abbreviated as μ-kernel) is the near-minimum amount of software that can provide the mechanisms needed to implement an operating system (OS). These mechanisms include low-level address space management, ...

named Hydra which is capability-based,

object-oriented Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of '' objects''. Objects can contain data (called fields, attributes or properties) and have actions they can perform (called procedures or methods and impleme ...

, and designed to support a wide range of possible OSs to run on it. With his wife Anita K. Jones, Wulf was a founder and vice president of

Tartan Laboratories Tartan Laboratories, Inc., later renamed Tartan, Inc., was an American software company founded in 1981 and based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that specialized in programming language compilers, especially for the language Ada. It was based on wo ...

, a

technology company, in 1981. Wulf served as president of 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 ...

from 1996 to 2007. He chaired the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council from 1992 to 1996. Prior to that, he served as Assistant Director of the US National Science Foundation's Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) directorate from 1988-1990. During this time, he played a major role in making the NSFnet computer network (as it was known at that time) available to the public as the Internet, for which he received the ACM Policy Award in 2017. He served on the Council of the ACM, on the board of directors of

CRDF Global Civilian Research and Development Foundation Global (CRDF Global) is an independent nonprofit organization that promotes safety, security, and sustainability through science and innovation. CRDF Global was authorized by the U.S. Congress in 199 ...

, and was a reviewing editor of ''

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

''. In 1994 he was inducted as a Fellow of the ACM. In 2007 Wulf was awarded the honor of delivering the prestigious Charles P. Steinmetz Lecture at

Union College Union College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York, United States. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the s ...

. He was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

that same year. Wulf's research also included computer architecture,

computer security Computer security (also cybersecurity, digital security, or information technology (IT) security) is a subdiscipline within the field of information security. It consists of the protection of computer software, systems and computer network, n ...

, and hardware-software codesign. Wulf ended his career at the University of Virginia by resigning on Tuesday, June 19, 2012, in protest of the forced resignation of former President Teresa A. Sullivan, in what he called, "the worst example of corporate governance I have ever seen. After widespread challenges from the faculty, student body, alumni, and the national academic community; and in the face of a direct threat from the Governor of Virginia that he would replace the entire board if they did not resolve the conflict, Sullivan was unanimously rehired some two weeks later.

Personal life and death

Wulf was married to Anita K. Jones, an Emeritus Professor of Computer Science at the

. William Wulf died in

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city (United States), independent city in Virginia, United States. It is the county seat, seat of government of Albemarle County, Virginia, Albemarle County, which surrounds the ...

, on March 10, 2023, at the age of 83.William Wulf obituary
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Publications

* Wulf, W. A., "Programming Without the GOTO", ''Proceedings of the Internationale Federation of Information Processing'', Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, August 1971. * Wulf, W. A., et al., "Reflections on a Systems Programming Language", ''Proceedings of the SIGPLAN Symposium on System Implementation Languages'', Purdue University, October 1971. * McCredie, J., Wulf, W. A., "The Selection of a Computing Alternative", ''Proceedings of the IEEE Computer Conference'', IEEE, Boston, September 1971. * Wulf, W. A., "A Case Against the GOTO", ''Proceedings of the ACM National Conference'', ACM, Boston, August 1972. * Wulf, W. A., and Shaw, M., "Global Variables Considered Harmful", ''

SIGPLAN Notices 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 ...

'' 8(2), February 1973. * Wulf, W. A., Shaw, M., Hilfinger, P. N., and Flon, L., ''Fundamental Structures of Computer Science'' Addison-Wesley, 1980. * Wulf, W. A., Johnson, R., Weinstock, C., Hobbs, S., and Geschke, C., ''

The Design of an Optimizing Compiler ''The'' is a grammatical article in English, denoting nouns that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The ...

'' American Elsevier Publishing Company, Inc., New York, 1975. * Shaw, M. and Wulf, W., "Tyrannical Languages Still Preempt System Design", ''Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Languages'', April 1992.

References

External links

William A. Wulf personal webpage

William Wulf - University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wulf, William 1939 births 2023 deaths American computer scientists Carnegie Mellon University faculty American computer science educators Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Foreign members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Kernel programmers Members of the American Philosophical Society Scientists from Chicago University of Illinois alumni University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni University of Virginia faculty 1994 fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery