Gerald Estrin (September 9, 1921 – March 29, 2012) was an American computer scientist, and professor at the UCLA Computer Science Department. He is known for his work on the organization of computer systems, on parallel processing and SARA (system architects apprentice).

Early life and education

Estrin was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 1921. He met his future wife Thelma Austern in 1941 at City College, New York and they were married when he was 20 and she was 17. Estrin entered the Army 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 ...

, after which he and Thelma Estrin entered the

University of Wisconsin-Madison A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

, where they both earned degrees 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 ...

. Estrin received his B.S.,

M.S. 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 medicine ...

, and Ph.D. degrees from the

University of Wisconsin A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

in 1948, 1949, and 1951, respectively.

Institute for Advanced Study

Estrin served as research engineer in the von Neumann group at IAS from 1950 to 1956. This led to an invitation from the

Weizmann Institute of Science The Weizmann Institute of Science ( ''Machon Weizmann LeMada'') is a Public university, public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, fourteen years before the State of Israel was founded. Unlike other List of Israeli uni ...

in Israel to direct the

WEIZAC WEIZAC (''Weizmann Automatic Computer'') was the first computer in Israel, and one of the first large-scale, stored program, stored-program, electronic computers in the world. It was built at the Weizmann Institute during 1954–1955, based on th ...

Project. Estrin and his wife went to

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

for the

Project in 1954, after which Estrin returned to a teaching position at

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

in 1955. In the late 1950s Estrin came up with the concept of

reconfigurable computing Reconfigurable computing is a computer architecture combining some of the flexibility of software with the high performance of hardware by processing with flexible hardware platforms like FPGA, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). The princip ...

, which allows the acceleration of computational processes by using variable configurations of specialised hardware modules in addition to a sequential processing unit. The idea was practically realised as "The Fixed Plus Variable Structure Computer".

UCLA

Estrin obtained a teaching position at

in 1953 and they moved to

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

. During this time Thelma taught at

Los Angeles Valley College Los Angeles Valley College (LAVC, Valley College, or Valley) is a public community college in Los Angeles, California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, ...

, a junior college in Los Angeles. After their return from the

project, Thelma also began working at UCLA in 1960 and she became a professor in the Computer Science Department in 1980. Gerald Estrin served as Chairperson of the UCLA Computer Science Department from 1979 to 1982 and from 1985 to 1988. He retired in 1991, and was recalled as

professor emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

. Estrin was an

IEEE Fellow , the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and ot ...

, a

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated d ...

, and a member of the Board of Governors of the

Personal life

Gerald Estrin had three daughters. Margo Estrin is a medical doctor, Deborah Estrin is a computer scientist and academic professor, and Judith Estrin is a corporate executive.

Selected publications

* Estrin, Gerald. "Organization of computer systems: the fixed plus variable structure computer." ''Papers presented at the May 3–5, 1960, western joint IRE-AIEE-ACM computer conference. ACM,'' 1960. * Estrin, Gerald, et al. "Parallel processing in a restructurable computer system." ''Electronic Computers, IEEE Transactions on'' 6 (1963): 747-755. * Estrin, Gerald, et al. "SARA (system architects apprentice): modeling, analysis, and simulation support for design of concurrent systems." ''Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on'' 2 (1986): 293–311.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Estrin, Gerald American computer scientists Jewish American scientists 1921 births 2012 deaths Fellows of the IEEE United States Army personnel of World War II 21st-century American Jews