Adriaan van Wijngaarden | |
|---|---|
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| Born | (1916-11-02)2 November 1916 |
| Died | 7 February 1987(1987-02-07) (aged 70) Amstelveen, Netherlands |
| Citizenship | Netherlands |
| Alma mater | Delft University of Technology (1939) |
| Known for | ALGOL CWI IFIP Van Wijngaarden grammar |
| Awards | IEEE Computer Pioneer Award (1986) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Numerical mathematics Computer science |
| Institutions | University of Amsterdam Mathematisch Centrum in Amsterdam |
| Doctoral advisor | Cornelis Benjamin Biezeno |
| Doctoral students | Edsger W. Dijkstra Peter van Emde Boas Jaco de Bakker Reinder van de Riet Guus Zoutendijk Maarten van Emden |
| Signature | |
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Adriaan "Aad"van Wijngaarden (2 November 1916 – 7 February 1987) was a Dutchmathematician andcomputer scientist. Trained as a mechanical engineer, Van Wijngaarden emphasized and promoted the mathematical aspects of computing, first innumerical analysis, then inprogramming languages and finally in design principles of such languages.
Van Wijngaarden's university education was inmechanical engineering, for which he received a degree fromDelft University of Technology[1] in 1939. He then studied for a doctorate inhydrodynamics, but abandoned the field. He joined theNationaal Luchtvaartlaboratorium in 1945 and went with a group toEngland the next year to learn about new technologies that had been developed there duringWorld War II.
Van Wijngaarden was intrigued by the new idea of automatic computing. On 1 January 1947, he became the head of the Computing Department of the brand-newCentrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), which was at the time known as the Mathematisch Centrum (MC), inAmsterdam.[1] He then made further visits to England and the United States, gathering ideas for the construction of the first Dutch computer, theARRA, an electromechanical device first demonstrated in 1952. In that same year, Van Wijngaarden hiredEdsger W. Dijkstra, and they worked on software for the ARRA.
in 1958, while visitingEdinburgh, Scotland, Van Wijngaarden was seriously injured in an automobile accident in which his wife was killed. After he recovered, he focused more on programming language research. The following year, he became a member of theRoyal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.[2]
In 1961, he became the director of the Mathematisch Centrum in Amsterdam and remained in that post for the next twenty years.
He was one of the designers of the originalALGOL language, and laterALGOL 68,[3] for which he developed a two-level type offormal grammar that became known as aVan Wijngaarden grammar.
In 1962, he became involved with developinginternational standards in programming and informatics, as a member of theInternational Federation for Information Processing (IFIP)IFIP Working Group 2.1 on Algorithmic Languages and Calculi,[4] whichspecified, maintains, and supports theprogramming languagesALGOL 60 andALGOL 68.[5]
The Van Wijngaarden Awards are named in his honor and are awarded every 5 years from the 60th anniversary of theCentrum Wiskunde & Informatica in 2006. The physical award consists of a bronze sculpture.
