Donald Knuth

Timothy FosterCSCE 221H

Pioneer Computer Artist

(1938 - present)

http://www.fbbva.es/

The Life of KnuthPre-University

• Donald Knuth had a great interest in sentence and music structure

• How many words can you form out of “Ziegler’s Giant Bar”?

• Knuth produced 4500! The judges only had 2500…

http://www.retrocom.com/

The Life of KnuthUniversity

• Originally majored in Physics at Case Institute of Technology at Ohio• Switched to Mathematics and graduated in 1960 with a Bachelor’s

and a Master’s simultaneously• First encountered the IBM 650 Computer as a freshman…

• …and proceeded to write programs better than its own.• Doctorate in Mathematics at California Institute of Technology, 1963

http://www.columbia.edu/

His Life’s WorkThe Art of Computer Programming

• Originally about compiler design, Knuth broadened the scope to include the rigorous analysis of various algorithms

• Planned to be Seven Volumes, with 3.25 already published• TeX was invented as a result of writing this book• According to the American Scientist, it is one of the “100 or so Books

that shaped a Century of Science”

http://www.xkcd.com/

Awards1974 Turing Award Winner

• 1971: First recipient of Grace Murray Hopper Award• 1979: National Medal of Science• 1995: John von Neumann Medal• 1996: Kyoto Prize

• 1975: Elected into National Academy of Sciences• 1990: Elected as Professor Emeritus of The Art of Computer

Programming• 2012: Fellow of American Mathematical Society

http://www.cs.utexas.edu/

TodayRetired, but Still Working

• Retired early from Stanford University in 1992

• Spends his time finishing The Art of Computer Programming

• Occasionally gives lectures at Stanford, called Computer Musings

http://www.tuwien.ac.at/

Resources

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Knuth• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Computer_Programming• http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Knuth.html• http://amturing.acm.org/award_winners/knuth_1013846.cfm