Kenneth Iverson

Updated: 12/01/2019 by Computer Hope
Kenneth Iverson

Name: Kenneth Eugene Iverson

Born: December 17, 1920, in Camrose, Alberta, Canada

Death: October 19, 2004 (Age: 83)

Computer-related contributions

  • Canadian computer scientist noted for the development of the APL programming language in 1962.
  • Honored with the Turing Award in 1979 for his contributions to mathematical notation and programming language theory.
  • Developed a mathematical notation that became known as Iverson Notation for manipulating arrays.

Significant publications

  • The ISI Dictionary of J (1991).
  • Tangible Math (1990).
  • A Source Book In APL (1981).
  • A Programming Language (1962).

Honors and awards

  • Honorary doctorate, York University, Toronto (1998).
  • IEEE Computer Society: Computer Pioneer Award, charter recipient (1982).
  • Turing Award (Association for Computing Machinery) (1979).
  • IEEE Computer Society: Harry H. Goode Memorial Award (1975).
  • Fellow, IBM (1970).

Quotes

"Most programming languages are decidedly inferior to mathematical notation and are little used as tools of thought in ways that would be considered significant by, say, an applied mathematician."