Ambrosius Paul Speiser (November 13 1922, in

Basel Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...

– May 10 2003, in

Aarau Aarau (, ) is a List of towns in Switzerland, town, a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality, and the capital of the northern Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Aargau. The List of towns in Switzerland, town is also the capital of the d ...

) was a Swiss engineer and scientist. He led the development of the first Swiss electronic

computer A computer is a machine that can be Computer programming, programmed to automatically Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (''computation''). Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic set ...

. Speiser studied electrotechnology at Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH), where in 1948 he earned his

diplom A ''Diplom'' (, from ) is an academic degree in the German-speaking countries Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and a similarly named degree in some other European countries including Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia ...

in communications engineering. In 1949, Eduard Stiefel sent

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 ...

and Speiser to study in

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

under

Howard H. Aiken Howard Hathaway Aiken (March 8, 1900 – March 14, 1973) was an American physicist and a pioneer in computing. He was the original conceptual designer behind IBM's Harvard Mark I, the United States' first programmable computer. Biography ...

and in

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

under

John von Neumann John von Neumann ( ; ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian and American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist and engineer. Von Neumann had perhaps the widest coverage of any mathematician of his time, in ...

; Rutishauser and Speiser became acquainted with the Harvard Mark III and the

IAS machine The IAS machine was the first electronic computer built at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey. It is sometimes called the von Neumann machine, since the paper describing its design was edited by John von Neumann, a ...

. In 1950, the Institut für angewandte Mathematik (Institute for Applied Mathematics, founded in 1948) of ETH acquired the Zuse Z4. As there were no other commercially available electronic computers which were suitable for scientific applications aside from the Z4, this led the Swiss to the idea of developing their own computer inspired by the Z4. Under Speiser's technical direction between 1950 and 1955, Switzerland's first electronic calculating machine,

ERMETH The ERMETH (''Elektronische Rechenmaschine der ETH'', German for Electronic Calculating Machine of the ETH) was one of the first computers in Europe and was developed and built by Eduard Stiefel and his team of the Seminar for Applied Mathematics ...

, originated.Stephan Bieri
''Prägender Ingenieur und Wissenschaftspolitiker.''
In: ''

Neue Zürcher Zeitung The (''NZZ''; "New Newspaper of Zurich") is German language daily newspaper, published by NZZ Mediengruppe in Zurich. The paper was founded in 1780. It has a reputation as a high-quality newspaper, as the German Swiss newspaper of record ...

'', 15 May 2003. Retrieved 15 December 2024 Speiser earned his

doctorate A doctorate (from Latin ''doctor'', meaning "teacher") or doctoral degree is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism '' licentia docendi'' ("licence to teach ...

and

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

during the development of ERMETH, but began an industrial career when he joined

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

in 1955. From 1956 to 1966 he was the director of IBM Zurich Research Laboratory in

Rüschlikon Rüschlikon is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Horgen District, Horgen in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Zürich (canton), Zürich in Switzerland. It is located on the west shore of Lake Zürich. Coat of ar ...

, the only research center of IBM outside of the USA at the time. In 1966 he left IBM to become the director of research for

Brown, Boveri & Cie Brown, Boveri & Cie. (Brown, Boveri & Company; BBC) was a Swiss group of electrical engineering companies. It was founded in Baden bei Zürich, in 1891 by Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown and Walter Boveri who worked at the Maschinenfabrik Oer ...

in order to develop the company's research center in Dättwil. He also served as the second president of the

International Federation for Information Processing The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) is a global organisation for researchers and professionals working in the field of computing to conduct research, develop standards and promote information sharing. Established in 19 ...

from 1965 to 1968. In 1962 ETH made Speiser a full professor. For years, he taught one of the first courses in computer science at the ETH. In 1986 ETH honored him with an honorary doctorate for his pioneering work at the frontier of

informatics Informatics is the study of computational systems. According to the Association for Computing Machinery, ACM Europe Council and Informatics Europe, informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which the centra ...

. The Schweizerische Akademie der Technischen Wissenschaften chose Speiser on 1987 as president of its executive committee and upon his resignation in 1993 made him an honorary member. Speiser was also a member of the Schweizerischen Schulrats,Johannnes Fulda
''Ein Humanist unter den Ingenieuren.''
In: ''Neue Zürcher Zeitung'', 27. November 1992, p. 25. Retrieved 15 December 2024 member of the board of trustees of the Schweizerischer Nationalfonds, and from 1983 to 1988 president of Vororts (now

Economiesuisse Economiesuisse is a Swiss corporate union, composed of the fusion of the Union suisse du commerce et de l'industrie ("Swiss union of commerce and industry") or Vorort, and of the Société pour le développement de l'économie suisse ("society ...

Works

* Ambros P. Speiser: ''Entwurf eines elektronischen Rechengerätes unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Erfordernis eines minimalen Materialaufwandes bei gegebener mathematischer Leistungsfähigkeit.'' Dissertation ETH Zürich, 1950. * Heinz Rutishauser, Ambros Paul Speiser, Eduard Stiefel: ''Programmgesteuerte digitale Rechengeräte (Elektronische Rechenmaschinen).'' Basel: Birkhäuser, 1951. * Ambros P. Speiser: ''Ueber die Zukunft der Technik. Eine weltweite Betrachtung.'' Referat und Diskussion der 33. Sitzung der Studiengruppe Energieperspektiven, Baden, 28. Januar 1988.

References

External links

* * * * Evelyn Boesch Trüeb
''Speiser, Ambros.''
Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (in German).
ETH Zürich: Biographie

Porträt des Monats
der ETH-Bibliothek {{DEFAULTSORT:Speiser, Ambrosius 20th-century Swiss engineers ETH Zurich alumni Academic staff of ETH Zurich 1922 births 2003 deaths