Adriaan van Wijngaarden and the start of computer science in the Netherlands
Jos Baeten, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica and Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, UvA Adriaan van Wijngaarden and the start of computer science in the Netherlands
Jos Baeten, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica and Institute for Logic, Language and Computation, UvA Adriaan van Wijngaarden 2 November 1916 – 7 February 1987
Graduated TH Delft Mechanical Engineering 1939 PhD TH Delft on calculations for a ship propellor 1945
London February 1946: look at mathematical machines Stichting Mathematisch Centrum
11 February 1946 Mathematics as a service
Pure mathematics department Statistics department Computing department (1947) Applied mathematics department (1948) 1 January 1947 head of computing department
1 January 1947 head of computing department ‘Girls of Van Wijngaarden’ 1947: in the UK, also USA
Met Turing, Von Neumann, others Plantage Muidergracht 6 Automatische Relais Rekenmachine Amsterdam Tweede Boerhaavestraat 49
ARRA II
N.V. Elektrologica, 1957
Algol 60
• In 1955, committee started on unified notation of computer programs
• Friedrich Bauer, 1958, International Algebraic Language
• 1959, Algorithmic Language, Van Wijngaarden and Dijkstra join
• 1960 editor of Algol 60 report
• Separation of hardware and software Algol 68
IFIP Working Group 2.1 taking the lead
Starts formal language theory (Chomsky’s universal grammar)
Van Wijngaarden grammars
Reasoning about language and programs
Some achievements
1958 started Nederlands RekenMachine Genootschap Nederlands Genootschap voor Informatica
1959 started International Federation for Information Processing
1961 - 1980 Director of Mathematical Centre
1952 - 1981 Professor Numerical Mathematics at UvA PhD students
1956 Willem van der Poel 1958 Nicolaas de Troye 1959 Edsger Dijkstra 1960 Guus Zoutendijk 1964 Jacob Zonneveld 1967 Jaco de Bakker 1968 Reinder van de Riet 1968 Barry Mailloux 1969 Jacobus Verhoeff 1970 Hugo Brandt Corstius 1971 Maarten van Emden 1974 Peter van Emde Boas 1976 Herman te Riele 1982 Dick Grune PhD students
1956 Willem van der Poel 1958 Nicolaas de Troye 1959 Edsger Dijkstra 1960 Guus Zoutendijk 1964 Jacob Zonneveld 1967 Jaco de Bakker 1968 Reinder van de Riet 1968 Barry Mailloux 1969 Jacobus Verhoeff 1970 Hugo Brandt Corstius 1971 Maarten van Emden 1974 Peter van Emde Boas 1976 Herman te Riele 1982 Dick Grune PhD students
1956 Willem van der Poel 1958 Nicolaas de Troye 1959 Edsger Dijkstra 1960 Guus Zoutendijk 1964 Jacob Zonneveld 1967 Jaco de Bakker 1968 Reinder van de Riet 1968 Barry Mailloux 1969 Jacobus Verhoeff 1970 Hugo Brandt Corstius 1971 Maarten van Emden 1974 Peter van Emde Boas 1976 Herman te Riele 1982 Dick Grune PhD students
1956 Willem van der Poel 1958 Nicolaas de Troye 1959 Edsger Dijkstra 1960 Guus Zoutendijk 1964 Jacob Zonneveld 1967 Jaco de Bakker 1968 Reinder van de Riet 1968 Barry Mailloux 1969 Jacobus Verhoeff 1970 Hugo Brandt Corstius 1971 Maarten van Emden 1974 Peter van Emde Boas 1976 Herman te Riele 1982 Dick Grune
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