Alan Jay Perlis American computer scientist Date of Birth: 01.04.1922 Country: USA

1. Early Life and Education
2. Military Service and Interest in Mathematics
3. Whirlwind Project and Academia
4. ACM Presidency and Turing Award
5. Yale University and National Recognition
6. Legacy and Honors

Early Life and Education

Alan Perlis was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on April 1, 1922. In 1943, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University).

Military Service and Interest in Mathematics

During World War II, Perlis served in the U.S. Army, where he developed an interest in mathematics. After the war, he obtained a Master's degree in 1949 and a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1950 from MIT. His doctoral dissertation was titled "On Integral Equations, Their Solution by Iteration and Analytic Continuation."

Whirlwind Project and Academia

In 1952, Perlis participated in the Whirlwind Project. He later joined the Purdue University faculty and returned to the Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1956. He served as a professor in the Department of Mathematics and became the first head of the Computer Science Department.

ACM Presidency and Turing Award

In 1962, Perlis was elected president of the ACM. He was awarded the Turing Award in 1966 "for his influence in the area of advanced programming techniques and compiler construction," citing his work as part of the team that developed the Algol programming language.

Yale University and National Recognition

In 1971, Perlis moved to Yale University as the Eugene Higgins Professor of Computer Science. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1977. In 1982, he wrote the article "Epigrams on Programming" for the ACM SIGPLAN magazine, summarizing in one-sentence statements the many things he had learned about programming throughout his career. The epigrams remain widely quoted today.

Legacy and Honors

Perlis was awarded the first Turing Award in 1966 and the AFIPS Education Award in 1984. His contributions to the field of computer programming and his influence on generations of computer scientists continue to be celebrated and honored.