Computer Pioneer Award

The Computer Pioneer Award was established in 1981 by the Board of Governors of the IEEE Computer Society to recognize and honor the vision of those people whose efforts resulted in the creation and continued vitality of the computer industry. The award is presented to outstanding individuals whose main contribution to the concepts and development of the computer field was made at least fifteen years earlier. The recognition is engraved on a silver medal specially struck for the Society.

IEEE Computer Society Computer Pioneer Award
Awarded for	Outstanding contributions to the concepts and development of the computer field
Country	USA
First award	1981
Website	computer.org/awards

This award has now been renamed to "Women of the ENIAC Computer Pioneer Award".^[1]

Award types

The award has two types of recipients:

• Computer Pioneer Charter Recipients - At the inauguration of this award, the individuals who already meet the Computer Pioneer Award criteria and also have received IEEE Computer Society awards prior to 1981.
• Computer Pioneer Recipients - Awarded annually since 1981.

Computer Pioneer Charter Recipients

• Howard H. Aiken - Large-Scale Automatic Computation
• Samuel N. Alexander - SEAC
• Gene M. Amdahl - Large-Scale Computer Architecture
• John W. Backus - FORTRAN
• Robert S. Barton - Language-Directed Architecture
• C. Gordon Bell - Computer Design
• Frederick P. Brooks, Jr. - Compatible Computer Family System/IBM 360
• Wesley A. Clark - First Personal Computer
• Fernando J. Corbato - Timesharing
• Seymour R. Cray - Scientific Computer Systems
• Edsger W. Dijkstra - Multiprogramming Control
• J. Presper Eckert - First All-Electronic Computer: ENIAC
• Jay W. Forrester - First Large-Scale Coincident Current Memory
• Herman H. Goldstine - Contributions to Early Computer Design
• Richard W. Hamming - Error-correcting code
• Jean A. Hoerni - Planar Semiconductor Manufacturing Process
• Grace M. Hopper - Automatic Programming
• Alston S. Householder - Numerical Methods
• David A. Huffman - Sequential Circuit Design
• Kenneth E. Iverson - APL
• Tom Kilburn - Paging Computer Design
• Donald E. Knuth - Science of Computer Algorithms
• Herman Lukoff - Early Electronic Computer Circuits
• John W. Mauchly - First All-Electronic Computer: ENIAC
• Gordon E. Moore - Integrated Circuit Production Technology
• Allen Newell - Contributions to Artificial Intelligence
• Robert N. Noyce - Integrated Circuit Production Technology
• Lawrence G. Roberts - Packet Switching
• George R. Stibitz - First Remote Computation
• Shmuel Winograd - Efficiency of Computational Algorithms
• Maurice V. Wilkes - Microprogramming
• Konrad Zuse - First Process Control Computer
• See external list of Computer Pioneer Charter Recipients

Computer Pioneer Recipients

Source: IEEE Computer Society

Year	Recipient	Significant contribution
2023	Daniel S. Bricklin	For creating VisiCalc, the progenitor of the modern spreadsheet.
	Scott Shenker	For pioneering contributions to scheduling and management of packet-switched networks, impacting the theory and practice of communication networks.
2022	Daphne Koller	For contributions to representation, inference, and learning in probabilistic models with applications to computational biology and human health.
	Christos Papadimitriou	For fundamental contributions to Computer Science, via the development of the theory of algorithms and complexity, and its application to the natural and social sciences.
2021	Peter J. Denning	For seminal contributions to virtual memory, the Internet infrastructure, and computing education.
	Moti Yung	For transformative innovations in "Trust in Computation;" specifically, coinventing "Malicious Cryptography", and pioneering contributions to "Distributed Cryptosystems".
2020	Demetri Terzopoulos	For a leading role in developing computer vision, computer graphics, and medical imaging through pioneering research that has helped unify these fields and has impacted related disciplines within and beyond computer science.
	Jack Dongarra	For leadership in the area of high-performance mathematical software.
2019	Laura Haas	For pioneering innovations in the architecture of federated databases and in the integration of data from multiple, heterogeneous sources.
	Jitendra Malik	For a leading role in developing Computer Vision into a thriving discipline through pioneering research, leadership, and mentorship.
2018	Barbara Liskov	for "pioneering data abstraction, polymorphism, and support for fault tolerance and distributed computing in the programming languages CLU and Argus." (source)
	Bjarne Stroustrup	For pioneering C++.
	Larry Page	For the creation of the Google search engine and leadership in creating ambitious products and research initiatives.
	Sergey Brin	For the creation of the Google search engine and leadership in creating ambitious products and research initiatives.
2016	E. Grady Booch	For pioneering work in Object Modeling that led to the creation of the Unified Modeling Language (UML).
2015	Michael J. Flynn	For more than 50 years of leadership including the creation of TCCA and SIGARCH.
2015	Peter M. Kogge	For developing algorithms for recurrence, development of the multi-core microprocessor chip and the formalization of methods for designing the control of a computer pipeline.
2014	Linus Torvalds	For pioneering development of the Linux kernel using the open-source approach.
2013	Edward Feigenbaum	For development of the basic principles and methods of knowledge-based systems and their practical applications.
2013	Stephen Furber	For pioneering work as a principal designer of the ARM 32-bit RISC microprocessor.
2012	Cleve Moler	For improving the quality of mathematical software, making it more accessible and creating MATLAB.
2011	David Kuck	For pioneering parallel architectures including the Illiac IV, the Burroughs BSP, and Cedar; and, for revolutionary parallel compiler technology including Parafrase and KAP Tools.
2009	Jean E. Sammet	For pioneering work and lifetime achievement as one of the first developers and researchers in programming languages.
	Lynn Conway	For contributions to superscalar architecture, including multiple-issue dynamic instruction scheduling, and for the innovation and widespread teaching of simplified VLSI design methods.
2008	Betty Jean Jeanings Bartik	Programmer including co-leading the first teams of ENIAC programmers, and pioneering work on BINAC and UNIVAC I
	Edward J. McCluskey	Design and synthesis of digital systems over five decades, including the first algorithm for logic synthesis (the Quine-McCluskey method)
	Carl A. Petri	Petri net theory (1962) and then parallel and distributed computing
2006	Mamoru Hosaka	Computing in Japan
	Arnold M. Spielberg	Real-time data acquisition and recording that significantly contributed to the definition of modern feedback and control processes
2004	Frances E. Allen	Theory and practice of compiler optimization
2003	Martin Richards	System software portability through the programming language BCPL widely influential and used in academia and industry for a variety of prominent system software
2002	Per Brinch Hansen	Operating systems and concurrent programming, exemplified by work on the RC 4000 multiprogramming system, monitors, and Concurrent Pascal
	Robert W. Bemer	ASCII, ASCII-alternate sets, and escape sequences
2001	Vernon Schatz	Electronic Funds Transfer which made possible computer to computer commercial transactions via the banking system
	William H. Bridge	Computer and communications technology in the GE DATANET-30
2000	Harold W. Lawson	Inventing the pointer variable and introducing this concept into PL/I
	Gennady Stolyarov	Minsk series computers' software, of the information systems' software
	Georgy Lopato	Belarus of the Minsk series computers' hardware, of the multicomputer complexes and of the RV family of mobile computers for heavy field conditions
1999	Herbert Freeman	SPEEDAC of Sperry Corporation, and computer graphics and image processing
1998	Irving John (Jack) Good	Field of computing as a Cryptologist and statistician during World War II at Bletchley Park, as an early worker and developer of the Colossus at Bletchley Park and on the University of Manchester Mark I, the world's first stored program computer
1997	Homer (Barney) Oldfield	Banking applications ERMA, and computer manufacturing
	Francis Elizabeth (Betty) Snyder-Holberton	Sort-merge generator for the Univac and compilation
1996	Angel Angelov	Computer science technologies in Bulgaria
	Richard F. Clippinger	Converted the ENIAC to a stored program at Aberdeen Proving Ground
	Edgar Frank Codd	Abstract model for database management
	Norber Fristacky	Digital devices
	Victor M. Glushkov	Digital automation of computer architecture
	Jozef Gruska	Theory of computing and organizational activities
	Jiri Horejs	Informatics and computer science
	Lubomir Georgiev Iliev	Computing in Bulgaria; 1st Bulgarian computers; abstract mathematics and software
	Robert E. Kahn	TCP/IP protocols and the Internet program
	László Kalmár	1956 logical machine and the design of the MIR computer in Hungary
	Antoni Kiliński	First commercial computers and informatics (computer science) curriculum in Poland,
	László Kozma	1930 relay machines, and early computers in post-war Hungary
	Sergey A. Lebedev	Designed and constructed the first computer in the Soviet Union and founded the Soviet computer industry
	Alexey A. Lyaponov	Soviet cybernetics and programming
	Romuald W. Marczynski	Polish digital computers and computer architecture
	Grigore C. Moisil	Polyvalent logic switching circuits
	Ivan Plander	Computer hardware technology into Slovakia and the control computer
	Arnold Reitsakas	Estonia's computer age
	Antonín Svoboda	Computer research in Czechoslovakia and SAPO and EPOS computers
1995	Gerald Estrin	Early computers
	David Evans	Computer graphics
	Butler Lampson	Personal Computer
	Marvin Minsky	Artificial intelligence
	Kenneth Olsen	Minicomputers
1994	Gerrit A. Blaauw	IBM System/360 Series
	Harlan B. Mills	Structured Programming
	Dennis M. Ritchie	Unix
	Ken L. Thompson
1993	Erich Bloch	High speed computing
	Jack S. Kilby	Co-inventing the integrated circuit
	Willis H. Ware	Design of IAS and JOHNNIAC computers
1992	Stephen W. Dunwell	Project stretch
	Douglas C. Engelbart	Human computer interaction
1991	Bob O. Evans	Compatible computers
	Robert W. Floyd	Compilers
	Thomas E. Kurtz	BASIC
1990	Werner Buchholz	Computer architecture
	C.A.R. Hoare	Programming languages definitions
1989	John Cocke	Instruction pipelining and RISC concepts
	James A. Weidenhammer	High speed I/O mechanisms
	Ralph L. Palmer	IBM 604 electronic calculator
	Mina S. Rees	ONR Computer R&D development beginning in 1946
	Marshall C. Yovits
	F. Joachim Weyl
	Gordon D. Goldstein
1988	Friedrich L. Bauer	Computer stacks
	Marcian E. Hoff, Jr.	Microprocessor on a chip
1987	Robert R. Everett	Whirlwind
	Reynold B. Johnson	RAMAC
	Arthur L. Samuel	Adaptive non-numeric processing
	Niklaus E. Wirth	Pascal
1986	Cuthbert C. Hurd	Computing
	Peter Naur	Computer language development
	James H. Pomerene	IAS and Harvest computers
	Adriann van Wijngaarden	ALGOL 68
1985	John G. Kemeny	BASIC
	John McCarthy	LISP and artificial intelligence
	Alan Perlis	Computer language translation
	Ivan Sutherland	Graphics Sketchpad
	David J. Wheeler	Assembly language programming
	Heinz Zemanek	Computer and computer languages for Mailüfterl
1984	John Vincent Atanasoff	Electronic computer with serial memory
	Jerrier A. Haddad	IBM 701
	Nicholas C. Metropolis	Solved atomic energy problems on ENIAC
	Nathaniel Rochester	Architecture of IBM 702 electronic data processing machines
	Willem L. van der Poel	Serial computer ZEBRA
1982	Harry D. Huskey	Parallel computer SWAC
	Arthur Burks	Electronic computer logic design
1981	Jeffrey Chuan Chu	Electronic computer logic design

Nomination process

All members of the profession are invited to nominate a colleague who they consider most eligible to be considered for this award. The nomination deadline is 15 October of each year.

• Nomination process

See also

• List of pioneers in computer science
• List of computer science awards
• List of computer-related awards
• List of awards named after people