Turing Award-winner Barbara Liskov has been named as one of the 2012 inductees of the National Inventors Hall of Fame, which has been honoring individuals who have “conceived, patented, and advanced the great technological achievements since the birth of our nation.” The citation reads:
Barbara Liskov, for programming languages and systems design:
MIT Institute Professor Liskov is considered an innovator in the design of computer programming languages, largely for helping to make computer programs more reliable, secure, and easy to use. Her innovations can be found within almost all modern programming languages.
Liskov is part of an elite class that includes several folks from computing. Among them (after the jump):
C. Kumar N. Patel, for the carbon dioxide laser:
Patel invented the CO2 laser while at Bell Labs. Since ushering in the use of high power laser applications, the CO2 laser has become common and versatile with uses in the medical, industrial, and military arenas. Patel founded his own company, Pranalytica, to manufacture mid-infrared quantum cascade laser systems and gas sensing instruments. He is also a professor of Physics & Astronomy at UCLA.
Lubomyr Romankiw, David Thompson, for the thin-film magnetic head:
IBM researchers Romankiw and Thompson invented the first practical magnetic thin-film storage heads. Thin-film technology increased the density of data that could be stored on magnetic disks, even while the disk size was being substantially reduced, dramatically reducing the cost of data storage.
Gary Starkweather, for the laser printer:
Starkweather’s laser printer, invented at the Xerox PARC facility, was the first to print any images that could be created on a computer; a laser beam carried digital information, and the copier then developed the imaged digital information to make a print. The laser printer would go on to become one of Xerox’s best selling products of all time.
Steve Jobs (1955-2011), for technology:
Co-founder of both Apple and Pixar, Jobs was named on over 300 patents and is credited with revolutionizing entire industries, including personal computing, mobile phones, animated movies, digital publishing and retailing.
To be named to the Hall, an individual’s invention “must have had a major impact on society, the public welfare, and the progress of science and the useful arts.”
This year’s Induction ceremony, sponsored in part by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, will take place on May 2 at the historic Patent Office Building — now the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery — in Washington, DC.
To read more, check out the entire list of 2012 inductees.
(Contributed by Erwin Gianchandani, CCC Director)
