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 was a Swiss computer scientist, engineer, programmer, and university teacher born in Winterthur in 1934. He was educated at ETH Zurich, Laval University, and the University of California, Berkeley. His professional career included positions at PARC, the University of Zurich, ETH Zurich, and Stanford University. He worked in the fields of information technology, informatics, and computer programming.
Wirth is the creator of several notable programming languages and systems, including Pascal, ALGOL W, Euler, and Oberon. He also authored works such as *Algorithms+ Data Structures= Programs* and *Programmieren in Modula-2*. His doctoral advisors were Harry Huskey and Edward Feigenbaum, and he was influenced by Edsger W. Dijkstra. He received the Turing Award, the IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award, the Computer Pioneer Award, and the Marcel Benoist Prize.
Wirth was 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. He spoke English and German. He died in Zurich on January 1, 2024.
Synthesized by Vinony from 26 facts across 3 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, Vinony collections. 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
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.