Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001) was an American expert in many areas, including mathematics, electrical engineering, computer science, cryptography, and invention. He is known as the “father of information theory” and is credited with starting the Information Age. Shannon was the first to explain how Boolean algebra—important for all digital electronic circuits—could be used.
Grace Brewster Hopper (born Murray; December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist, mathematician, and United States Navy rear admiral. She was one of the first people to work on computer programming. Hopper created the idea for programming languages that could work on different types of computers.
John Warner Backus was born on December 3, 1924, and died on March 17, 2007. He was an American computer scientist who led the team that created FORTRAN, the first widely used high-level programming language. He also invented the Backus–Naur form (BNF), a method used to describe the structure of programming languages.
Marvin Minsky (August 9, 1927 – January 24, 2016) was an American mathematician who studied at Harvard University and Princeton University. He used his education as a foundation for research in artificial intelligence (AI), focusing on how computers and human thinking can work together. After spending three years as a Junior Fellow at Harvard, Minsky became a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1958.
Fernando José “Corby” Corbató was born on July 1, 1926, and passed away on July 12, 2019. He was an American scientist who worked with computers. He is noted for helping create time-sharing operating systems, which allow multiple users to share a computer’s resources.
Gene Myron Amdahl was born on November 16, 1922, and passed away on November 10, 2015. He was an American computer architect and a business leader in technology. He is most known for his work on large computers at IBM and later at his own company, Amdahl Corporation.
Seymour Roger Cray (September 28, 1925 – October 5, 1996) was an American electrical engineer, computer scientist, mathematician, and supercomputer architect. He designed a series of computers that were the fastest in the world for many years and founded Cray Research, which built many of these machines. Known as “the father of supercomputing,” Cray is credited with creating the supercomputer industry.
Keith Clark is an American composer, conductor, and music teacher. He is most famous for starting the Pacific Symphony and the Astoria Music Festival. He works with orchestras around the world.
Avern Levin Cohn (July 23, 1924 – February 4, 2022) served as a federal judge in the United States District Court for the Eastern part of Michigan.
Brian Patrick Campbell (born on March 6, 1993) is an American professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour, where he has won two tournaments: the 2025 Mexico Open and the 2025 John Deere Classic.