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The '''A.M. Turing Award''' is given annually by the [[Association for Computing Machinery]] to
a person selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the [[computing]] community.
The contributions should be of lasting and major technical importance to the
computer field. Most of the recipients have been [[computer scientist]]s.
The award is named after [[Alan Mathison Turing]], a [[United Kingdom|British]] mathematician considered to be one of the fathers of modern [[computer science]].
The Turing Award is often recognized as the "[[Nobel Prize]] of computing"[http://www.acm.org/announcements/turingaward.4-21-2004.html]. It is sponsored by [[Intel]] Corporation and currently is accompanied by a prize of $100,000.
The award recipients and the fields in which they earned the recognition are listed below. Refer to the individual recipients for more detailed information on their achievements.
==Turing Award recipients==
{| class="wikitable"
!Year
!Recipients
!Citation
|-
![[1966]]
|[[Alan Perlis|Alan J. Perlis]]
|''For his influence in the area of advanced [[programming]] techniques and [[compiler]] construction''
|-
![[1967]]
|[[Maurice V. Wilkes]]
|''Professor Wilkes is best known as the builder and designer of the [[EDSAC]], the first computer with an internally stored [[computer program|program]]. Built in 1949, the EDSAC used a [[mercury delay line memory]]. He is also known as the author, with Wheeler and Gill, of a volume on "[[Preparation of Programs for Electronic Digital Computers]]" in 1951, in which [[program libraries]] were effectively introduced''
|-
![[1968]]
|[[Richard Hamming]]
|''For his work on [[numerical methods]], automatic coding systems, and error-detecting and error-correcting codes''
|-
![[1969]]
|[[Marvin Minsky]]
|''[[artificial intelligence]]''
|-
![[1970]]
|[[James H. Wilkinson]]
|''For his research in [[numerical analysis]] to facilitiate the use of the high-speed digital computer, having received special recognition for his work in computations in [[linear algebra]] and "backward" error analysis''
|-
![[1971]]
|[[John McCarthy (computer scientist)|John McCarthy]]
|''Dr. McCarthy's lecture "The Present State of Research on [[Artificial Intelligence]]" is a topic that covers the area in which he has achieved considerable recognition for his work''
|-
![[1972]]
|[[Edsger Dijkstra]]
|''Edsger Dijkstra was a principal contributor in the late 1950's to the development of the [[ALGOL]], a high level [[programming language]] which has become a model of clarity and mathematical rigor. He is one of the principal exponents of the science and art of [[programming language]]s in general, and has greatly contributed to our understanding of their structure, representation, and implementation. His fifteen years of publications extend from theoretical articles on graph theory to basic manuals, expository texts, and philosophical contemplations in the field of programming languages''
|-
![[1973]]
|[[Charles Bachman|Charles W. Bachman]]
|''For his outstanding contributions to [[database]] technology''
|-
![[1974]]
|[[Donald Knuth|Donald E. Knuth]]
|''For his major contributions to the analysis of algorithms and the design of programming languages, and in particular for his contributions to "[[The Art of Computer Programming]]" through his well-known books in a continuous series by this title''
|-
![[1975]]
|[[Allen Newell]] and [[Herbert Simon|Herbert A. Simon]]
|''In joint scientific efforts extending over twenty years, initially in collaboration with J. C. Shaw at the [[RAND|RAND Corporation]], and subsequentially with numerous faculty and student colleagues at [[Carnegie Mellon University]], they have made basic contributions to [[artificial intelligence]], the psychology of human cognition, and list processing''
|-
![[1976]]
|[[Michael O. Rabin]] and [[Dana Scott|Dana S. Scott]]
|''For their joint paper "Finite Automata and Their Decision Problem," which introduced the idea of [[nondeterministic machine]]s, which has proved to be an enormously valuable concept. Their (Scott & Rabin) classic paper has been a continuous source of inspiration for subsequent work in this field''
|-
![[1977]]
|[[John Backus]]
|''For profound, influential, and lasting contributions to the design of practical high-level programming systems, notably through his work on [[FORTRAN]], and for seminal publication of formal procedures for the specification of [[programming language]]s''
|-
![[1978]]
|[[Robert Floyd|Robert W. Floyd]]
|''For having a clear influence on methodologies for the creation of efficient and reliable software, and for helping to found the following important subfields of [[computer science]]: the theory of [[parsing]], the [[semantics]] of programming languages, automatic [[program verification]], [[automatic programming|automatic program synthesis]], and [[analysis of algorithms]]''
|-
![[1979]]
|[[Kenneth E. Iverson]]
|''For his pioneering effort in programming languages and mathematical notation resulting in what the computing field now knows as APL, for his contributions to the implementation of interactive systems, to educational uses of APL, and to programming language theory and practice''
|-
![[1980]]
|[[C. A. R. Hoare|C. Antony R. Hoare]]
|''For his fundamental contributions to the definition and design of programming languages''
|-
![[1981]]
|[[Edgar F. Codd]]
|''For his fundamental and continuing contributions to the theory and practice of database management systems'', esp. [[relational database]]s
|-
![[1982]]
|[[Stephen A. Cook]]
|''For his advancement of our understanding of the complexity of computation in a significant and profound way''
|-
![[1983]]
|[[Ken Thompson (computer programmer)|Ken Thompson]] and [[Dennis M. Ritchie]]
|''For their development of generic operating systems theory and specifically for the implementation of the [[Unix|UNIX]] operating system''
|-
![[1984]]
|[[Niklaus Wirth]]
|''For developing a sequence of innovative computer languages, [[Euler programming language|EULER]], [[Algol-W|ALGOL-W]], [[Modula|MODULA]] and [[PASCAL]]''
|-
![[1985]]
|[[Richard M. Karp]]
|''For his continuing contributions to the theory of algorithms including the development of efficient algorithms for network flow and other combinatorial optimization problems, the identification of polynomial-time computability with the intuitive notion of algorithmic efficiency, and, most notably, contributions to the theory of [[NP-complete|NP-completeness]]''
|-
![[1986]]
|[[John Hopcroft]] and [[Robert Tarjan]]
|''For fundamental achievements in the design and analysis of algorithms and data structures''
|-
![[1987]]
|[[John Cocke]]
|''For significant contributions in the design and theory of compilers, the architecture of large systems and the development of reduced instruction set computers ([[RISC]])''
|-
![[1988]]
|[[Ivan Sutherland]]
|''For his pioneering and visionary contributions to [[computer graphics]], starting with Sketchpad, and continuing after''
|-
![[1989]]
|[[William Kahan|William (Velvel) Kahan]]
|''For his fundamental contributions to [[numerical analysis]]. One of the foremost experts on [[floating point|floating-point]] computations. Kahan has dedicated himself to "making the world safe for numerical computations."''
|-
![[1990]]
|[[Fernando J. Corbató]]
|''For his pioneering work organizing the concepts and leading the development of the general-purpose, large-scale, [[time-sharing]] and resource-sharing computer systems, [[CTSS]] and [[Multics]].''
|-
![[1991]]
|[[Robin Milner]]
|''For three distinct and complete achievements: 1) [[LCF theorem prover|LCF]], the mechanization of Scott's Logic of Computable Functions, probably the first theoretically based yet practical tool for [[automated theorem proving|machine assisted proof construction]]; 2) [[ML programming language|ML]], the first language to include polymorphic [[type inference]] together with a [[type safety|type-safe]] [[exception handling|exception-handling]] mechanism; 3) [[Calculus of Communicating Systems|CCS]], a general theory of [[concurrency (computer science)|concurrency]]. In addition, he formulated and strongly advanced [[full abstraction]], the study of the relationship between [[operational semantics|operational]] and [[denotational semantics|denotational]] [[semantics]].''
|-
![[1992]]
|[[Butler W. Lampson]]
|''For contributions to the development of distributed, personal computing environments and the technology for their implementation: [[workstation]]s, [[computer network|networks]], [[operating system]]s, programming systems, [[computer display|displays]], [[computer security|security]] and [[word processor|document publishing]].''
|-
![[1993]]
|[[Juris Hartmanis]] and [[Richard E. Stearns]]
|''In recognition of their seminal paper which established the foundations for the field of [[computational complexity theory]].''
|-
![[1994]]
|[[Edward Feigenbaum]] and [[Raj Reddy]]
|''For pioneering the design and construction of large scale artificial intelligence systems, demonstrating the practical importance and potential commercial impact of artificial intelligence technology.''
|-
![[1995]]
|[[Manuel Blum]]
|''In recognition of his contributions to the foundations of [[computational complexity theory]] and its application to [[cryptography]] and [[program verification|program checking]].''
|-
![[1996]]
|[[Amir Pnueli]]
|''For seminal work introducing [[temporal logic]] into computing science and for outstanding contributions to program and systems [[formal verification|verification]].''
|-
![[1997]]
|[[Douglas Engelbart]]
|''For an inspiring vision of the future of interactive computing and the invention of key technologies to help realize this vision.''
|-
![[1998]]
|[[James Gray (researcher)|James Gray]]
|''For seminal contributions to [[database]] and [[transaction processing]] research and technical leadership in system implementation.''
|-
![[1999]]
|[[Frederick P. Brooks|Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.]]
|''For landmark contributions to [[computer architecture]], [[operating systems]], and [[software engineering]].''
|-
![[2000]]
|[[Andrew Chi-Chih Yao]]
|''In recognition of his fundamental contributions to the [[theory of computation]], including the complexity-based theory of [[pseudorandom number generator|pseudorandom number generation]], [[cryptography]], and [[communication complexity]].''
|-
![[2001]]
|[[Ole-Johan Dahl]] and [[Kristen Nygaard]]
|''For ideas fundamental to the emergence of [[object-oriented programming]], through their design of the programming languages [[Simula I]] and [[Simula 67]].''
|-
![[2002]]
|[[Ron Rivest|Ronald L. Rivest]], [[Adi Shamir]] and [[Leonard Adleman|Leonard M. Adleman]]
|''For their ingenious contribution for making [[public-key cryptography]] useful in practice.''
|-
![[2003]]
|[[Alan Kay]]
|''For pioneering many of the ideas at the root of contemporary [[object-oriented programming language]]s, leading the team that developed [[Smalltalk]], and for fundamental contributions to personal computing.''
|-
![[2004]]
|[[Vinton G. Cerf]] and [[Robert E. Kahn]]
|''For pioneering work on [[internetworking]], including the design and implementation of the [[Internet]]'s basic communications protocols, [[TCP/IP]], and for inspired leadership in networking.''
|-
![[2005]]
|[[Peter Naur]]
|''For fundamental contributions to [[programming language]] design and the definition of [[Algol 60]], to [[compiler]] design, and to the art and practice of computer programming.''
|}
a person selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the [[computing]] community.
The contributions should be of lasting and major technical importance to the
computer field. Most of the recipients have been [[computer scientist]]s.
The award is named after [[Alan Mathison Turing]], a [[United Kingdom|British]] mathematician considered to be one of the fathers of modern [[computer science]].
The Turing Award is often recognized as the "[[Nobel Prize]] of computing"[http://www.acm.org/announcements/turingaward.4-21-2004.html]. It is sponsored by [[Intel]] Corporation and currently is accompanied by a prize of $100,000.
The award recipients and the fields in which they earned the recognition are listed below. Refer to the individual recipients for more detailed information on their achievements.
==Turing Award recipients==
{| class="wikitable"
!Year
!Recipients
!Citation
|-
![[1966]]
|[[Alan Perlis|Alan J. Perlis]]
|''For his influence in the area of advanced [[programming]] techniques and [[compiler]] construction''
|-
![[1967]]
|[[Maurice V. Wilkes]]
|''Professor Wilkes is best known as the builder and designer of the [[EDSAC]], the first computer with an internally stored [[computer program|program]]. Built in 1949, the EDSAC used a [[mercury delay line memory]]. He is also known as the author, with Wheeler and Gill, of a volume on "[[Preparation of Programs for Electronic Digital Computers]]" in 1951, in which [[program libraries]] were effectively introduced''
|-
![[1968]]
|[[Richard Hamming]]
|''For his work on [[numerical methods]], automatic coding systems, and error-detecting and error-correcting codes''
|-
![[1969]]
|[[Marvin Minsky]]
|''[[artificial intelligence]]''
|-
![[1970]]
|[[James H. Wilkinson]]
|''For his research in [[numerical analysis]] to facilitiate the use of the high-speed digital computer, having received special recognition for his work in computations in [[linear algebra]] and "backward" error analysis''
|-
![[1971]]
|[[John McCarthy (computer scientist)|John McCarthy]]
|''Dr. McCarthy's lecture "The Present State of Research on [[Artificial Intelligence]]" is a topic that covers the area in which he has achieved considerable recognition for his work''
|-
![[1972]]
|[[Edsger Dijkstra]]
|''Edsger Dijkstra was a principal contributor in the late 1950's to the development of the [[ALGOL]], a high level [[programming language]] which has become a model of clarity and mathematical rigor. He is one of the principal exponents of the science and art of [[programming language]]s in general, and has greatly contributed to our understanding of their structure, representation, and implementation. His fifteen years of publications extend from theoretical articles on graph theory to basic manuals, expository texts, and philosophical contemplations in the field of programming languages''
|-
![[1973]]
|[[Charles Bachman|Charles W. Bachman]]
|''For his outstanding contributions to [[database]] technology''
|-
![[1974]]
|[[Donald Knuth|Donald E. Knuth]]
|''For his major contributions to the analysis of algorithms and the design of programming languages, and in particular for his contributions to "[[The Art of Computer Programming]]" through his well-known books in a continuous series by this title''
|-
![[1975]]
|[[Allen Newell]] and [[Herbert Simon|Herbert A. Simon]]
|''In joint scientific efforts extending over twenty years, initially in collaboration with J. C. Shaw at the [[RAND|RAND Corporation]], and subsequentially with numerous faculty and student colleagues at [[Carnegie Mellon University]], they have made basic contributions to [[artificial intelligence]], the psychology of human cognition, and list processing''
|-
![[1976]]
|[[Michael O. Rabin]] and [[Dana Scott|Dana S. Scott]]
|''For their joint paper "Finite Automata and Their Decision Problem," which introduced the idea of [[nondeterministic machine]]s, which has proved to be an enormously valuable concept. Their (Scott & Rabin) classic paper has been a continuous source of inspiration for subsequent work in this field''
|-
![[1977]]
|[[John Backus]]
|''For profound, influential, and lasting contributions to the design of practical high-level programming systems, notably through his work on [[FORTRAN]], and for seminal publication of formal procedures for the specification of [[programming language]]s''
|-
![[1978]]
|[[Robert Floyd|Robert W. Floyd]]
|''For having a clear influence on methodologies for the creation of efficient and reliable software, and for helping to found the following important subfields of [[computer science]]: the theory of [[parsing]], the [[semantics]] of programming languages, automatic [[program verification]], [[automatic programming|automatic program synthesis]], and [[analysis of algorithms]]''
|-
![[1979]]
|[[Kenneth E. Iverson]]
|''For his pioneering effort in programming languages and mathematical notation resulting in what the computing field now knows as APL, for his contributions to the implementation of interactive systems, to educational uses of APL, and to programming language theory and practice''
|-
![[1980]]
|[[C. A. R. Hoare|C. Antony R. Hoare]]
|''For his fundamental contributions to the definition and design of programming languages''
|-
![[1981]]
|[[Edgar F. Codd]]
|''For his fundamental and continuing contributions to the theory and practice of database management systems'', esp. [[relational database]]s
|-
![[1982]]
|[[Stephen A. Cook]]
|''For his advancement of our understanding of the complexity of computation in a significant and profound way''
|-
![[1983]]
|[[Ken Thompson (computer programmer)|Ken Thompson]] and [[Dennis M. Ritchie]]
|''For their development of generic operating systems theory and specifically for the implementation of the [[Unix|UNIX]] operating system''
|-
![[1984]]
|[[Niklaus Wirth]]
|''For developing a sequence of innovative computer languages, [[Euler programming language|EULER]], [[Algol-W|ALGOL-W]], [[Modula|MODULA]] and [[PASCAL]]''
|-
![[1985]]
|[[Richard M. Karp]]
|''For his continuing contributions to the theory of algorithms including the development of efficient algorithms for network flow and other combinatorial optimization problems, the identification of polynomial-time computability with the intuitive notion of algorithmic efficiency, and, most notably, contributions to the theory of [[NP-complete|NP-completeness]]''
|-
![[1986]]
|[[John Hopcroft]] and [[Robert Tarjan]]
|''For fundamental achievements in the design and analysis of algorithms and data structures''
|-
![[1987]]
|[[John Cocke]]
|''For significant contributions in the design and theory of compilers, the architecture of large systems and the development of reduced instruction set computers ([[RISC]])''
|-
![[1988]]
|[[Ivan Sutherland]]
|''For his pioneering and visionary contributions to [[computer graphics]], starting with Sketchpad, and continuing after''
|-
![[1989]]
|[[William Kahan|William (Velvel) Kahan]]
|''For his fundamental contributions to [[numerical analysis]]. One of the foremost experts on [[floating point|floating-point]] computations. Kahan has dedicated himself to "making the world safe for numerical computations."''
|-
![[1990]]
|[[Fernando J. Corbató]]
|''For his pioneering work organizing the concepts and leading the development of the general-purpose, large-scale, [[time-sharing]] and resource-sharing computer systems, [[CTSS]] and [[Multics]].''
|-
![[1991]]
|[[Robin Milner]]
|''For three distinct and complete achievements: 1) [[LCF theorem prover|LCF]], the mechanization of Scott's Logic of Computable Functions, probably the first theoretically based yet practical tool for [[automated theorem proving|machine assisted proof construction]]; 2) [[ML programming language|ML]], the first language to include polymorphic [[type inference]] together with a [[type safety|type-safe]] [[exception handling|exception-handling]] mechanism; 3) [[Calculus of Communicating Systems|CCS]], a general theory of [[concurrency (computer science)|concurrency]]. In addition, he formulated and strongly advanced [[full abstraction]], the study of the relationship between [[operational semantics|operational]] and [[denotational semantics|denotational]] [[semantics]].''
|-
![[1992]]
|[[Butler W. Lampson]]
|''For contributions to the development of distributed, personal computing environments and the technology for their implementation: [[workstation]]s, [[computer network|networks]], [[operating system]]s, programming systems, [[computer display|displays]], [[computer security|security]] and [[word processor|document publishing]].''
|-
![[1993]]
|[[Juris Hartmanis]] and [[Richard E. Stearns]]
|''In recognition of their seminal paper which established the foundations for the field of [[computational complexity theory]].''
|-
![[1994]]
|[[Edward Feigenbaum]] and [[Raj Reddy]]
|''For pioneering the design and construction of large scale artificial intelligence systems, demonstrating the practical importance and potential commercial impact of artificial intelligence technology.''
|-
![[1995]]
|[[Manuel Blum]]
|''In recognition of his contributions to the foundations of [[computational complexity theory]] and its application to [[cryptography]] and [[program verification|program checking]].''
|-
![[1996]]
|[[Amir Pnueli]]
|''For seminal work introducing [[temporal logic]] into computing science and for outstanding contributions to program and systems [[formal verification|verification]].''
|-
![[1997]]
|[[Douglas Engelbart]]
|''For an inspiring vision of the future of interactive computing and the invention of key technologies to help realize this vision.''
|-
![[1998]]
|[[James Gray (researcher)|James Gray]]
|''For seminal contributions to [[database]] and [[transaction processing]] research and technical leadership in system implementation.''
|-
![[1999]]
|[[Frederick P. Brooks|Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.]]
|''For landmark contributions to [[computer architecture]], [[operating systems]], and [[software engineering]].''
|-
![[2000]]
|[[Andrew Chi-Chih Yao]]
|''In recognition of his fundamental contributions to the [[theory of computation]], including the complexity-based theory of [[pseudorandom number generator|pseudorandom number generation]], [[cryptography]], and [[communication complexity]].''
|-
![[2001]]
|[[Ole-Johan Dahl]] and [[Kristen Nygaard]]
|''For ideas fundamental to the emergence of [[object-oriented programming]], through their design of the programming languages [[Simula I]] and [[Simula 67]].''
|-
![[2002]]
|[[Ron Rivest|Ronald L. Rivest]], [[Adi Shamir]] and [[Leonard Adleman|Leonard M. Adleman]]
|''For their ingenious contribution for making [[public-key cryptography]] useful in practice.''
|-
![[2003]]
|[[Alan Kay]]
|''For pioneering many of the ideas at the root of contemporary [[object-oriented programming language]]s, leading the team that developed [[Smalltalk]], and for fundamental contributions to personal computing.''
|-
![[2004]]
|[[Vinton G. Cerf]] and [[Robert E. Kahn]]
|''For pioneering work on [[internetworking]], including the design and implementation of the [[Internet]]'s basic communications protocols, [[TCP/IP]], and for inspired leadership in networking.''
|-
![[2005]]
|[[Peter Naur]]
|''For fundamental contributions to [[programming language]] design and the definition of [[Algol 60]], to [[compiler]] design, and to the art and practice of computer programming.''
|}
