File:Niklaus_Wirth,_UrGU.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Niklaus Wirth
Sign in to saveAlso known as Niklaus Emil Wirth, Niklaus E. Wirth
Swiss computer scientist (1934–2024)
OverviewAI-generated
Niklaus Emil Wirth is a Swiss computer scientist, engineer, programmer, and university teacher born in Winterthur in 1934. He has held positions at ETH Zurich, Stanford University, the University of Zurich, and PARC. Wirth’s academic background includes studies at ETH Zurich, Laval University, and the University of California, Berkeley, where he was advised by Harry Huskey and Edward Feigenbaum. His field of work encompasses information technology, informatics, and computer programming.
Wirth is recognized for his notable works, including ALGOL W and Oberon. He has received the Turing Award, the IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award, the Computer Pioneer Award, and the Marcel Benoist Prize. He is a member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the German Academy of Science and Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Association for Computing Machinery. Among his publications are *Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs* and *Programmieren in Modula-2*.
Synthesized by Vinony from 30 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, Open Library, Wikiquote, Vinony collections, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Works
- 38
Top works
- Algorithms+ Data Structures= Programs
- Algorithmen und Datenstrukturen mit Modula -- 2
- Algorithmen und Datenstrukturen
- Algoritmos e Estruturas de Dados
- Programmieren in Modula-2
via Open Library + Wikidata
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- Novel methods improve prediction of species’ distributions from occurrence data
· 2006 · cited 7,223x
- Present and future Köppen-Geiger climate classification maps at 1-km resolution
· 2018 · cited 5,758x
- Predictive habitat distribution models in ecology
· 2000 · cited 5,001x
- Climatologies at high resolution for the earth’s land surface areas
· 2017 · cited 4,083x
- The global spectrum of plant form and function
· 2015 · cited 3,060x
via Crossref · CC0
Quotes
- “Software gets slower faster than hardware gets faster.”
- “Go To statement considered harmful.”
- “In our profession, precision and perfection are not a dispensable luxury, but a simple necessity.”
- “Reliable and transparent programs are usually not in the interest of the designer.”
- “... we do not consider it as good engineering practice to consume a resource lavishly just because it happens to be cheap.”
- “As a matter of fact, the adaptability of a program to changes in its objectives (often called maintainability) and to changes in its environment (nowadays called portability) can be measured primarily in terms of the degree to which it is neatly structured.”
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- Switzerland
- Place of birth
- Winterthur
- Place of death
- Zurich
- Occupation
- computer scientist
- Educated at
- University of California, Berkeley
- Employer
- ETH Zurich
- Languages spoken
- German
- Award
- honorary doctorate
- Notable work
- Modula
- Doctoral advisor
- Edward Feigenbaum
- Field of work
- computer programming
- Official website
- people.inf.ethz.ch/wirth
- Image
- Niklaus Wirth, UrGU.jpg
Show 10 more facts
- Commons category
- Niklaus Wirth
- date of birth
- 1934-02-15
- member of
- Academia Europaea
- Erdős number
- 3
- name in native language
- Niklaus Emil Wirth
- influenced by
- Edsger W. Dijkstra
- on focus list of Wikimedia project
- Wikipedia:Vital articles/Level/4
- maintained by WikiProject
- WikiProject Mathematics
- date of death
- 2024-01-01
- municipal affiliation of a Swiss national
- Zurich
Sources (7)
via Wikidata · CC0
~8 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Niklaus Emil Wirth (IPA: /vɛrt/) (15 February 1934 – 1 January 2024) was a Swiss computer scientist. He designed several programming languages, including Pascal, and pioneered several classic topics in software engineering. In 1984, he won the Turing Award, generally recognized as the highest distinction in computer science, "for developing a sequence of innovative computer languages".
Early life and education
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Niklaus Wirth” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.