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{{Infobox_Scientist
{{subpages}}
| name = Donald Ervin Knuth
'''Donald Ervin Knuth''', born on January 10, 1938, in [[Milwaukee, Wisconsin]], is an acclaimed [[computer science|computer scientist]], [[Mathematics|mathematician]], and [[Emeritus Professor#Other positions:|professor emeritus]] at Stanford University.  As the author of the widely-cited, multi-volume ''[[The Art of Computer Programming]]'' <ref name="ArtCP">
| image = KnuthAtOpenContentAlliance.jpg|300px
{{cite web|url=http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/taocp.html
| image_width = 300px
|title="The Art of Computer Programming" (an overview of each volume)
| caption = Photographed by Jacob Appelbaum, [[25 October]] [[2005]]
|author=Donald Knuth
| birth_date = [[10 January]] [[1938]]
|accessdate=2007-09-25}}
| birth_place = [[Milwaukee, Wisconsin]], [[USA]]
</ref>, Knuth contributed significantly to the analysis of [[Algorithm|algorithms]]. He is also known for having created the [[TeX]] typesetting system and of the [[METAFONT]] font design system, and pioneering the concept of [[literate programming]]. Professor Knuth has accumulated a number of [[#Honors_and_Awards|honors and awards]].
| nationality =[[USA]]
| field = [[Computer Science|Computer Scientist]]
| work_institution = [[Stanford University]]
| alma_mater = [[Case Western Reserve University|Case Institute of Technology]]<br>[[California Institute of Technology]]
| doctoral_advisor = [[Marshall Hall (mathematician)|Marshall Hall, Jr.]]
| known_for = [[TeX]]<br>[[The Art of Computer Programming]]<br>
| prizes = [[John von Neumann Medal]] (1995)
}}


'''Donald Ervin Knuth''' was born, [[January 10]], [[1938]]. He is a renowned [[computer science|computer scientist]] and [[Emeritus Professor#Other positions:|professor emeritus]] at [[Stanford University]].
__TOC__


Knuth is best known as the author of the multi-volume ''[[The Art of Computer Programming]]'' <ref>http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/taocp.html</ref>, one of the most highly respected references in the computer science field. He contributed significantly to the field of rigorous [[analysis of algorithms]], and has made many seminal contributions to several branches of [[theoretical computer science]]. He is also the creator of the [[TeX]] typesetting system and of the [[METAFONT]] font design system, and pioneered the concept of [[literate programming]].  
==Academic achievements==
In 1960, Knuth simultaneously earned a [[bachelor's degree]] and [[master's degree]] in [[mathematics]] from the [[Case Western Reserve University|Case Institute of Technology]] (now part of [[Case Western Reserve University]]). In 1963, he earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from the [[California Institute of Technology]], where he became a professor and began work on ''[[The Art of Computer Programming]]'', originally planned as a seven-volume  series.  


==Education and academic work==
In 1968, he joined the faculty of [[Stanford University]] and published the first volume of ''[[The Art of Computer Programming]]''.  In 1976, after producing the third volume of ''[[The Art of Computer Programming]]'', Knuth created the influential [[TeX]] and [[METAFONT]] tools as a result of his frustration with the electronic publishing tools used to provide input to photo-typesetters. In 1990, Stanford awarded Knuth the singular academic title of ''Professor of the Art of Computer Programming'', which was revised to ''Professor [[Emeritus]] of the Art of Computer Programming''  upon his 1992 retirement from teaching at [[Stanford University]].  Knuth continued work on ''[[The Art of Computer Programming]]''. By 2004, revised versions of the first three volumes had been re-issued, and Knuth continued working on volume four, excerpts of which are released periodically on his website.  
Born in [[Milwaukee, Wisconsin]], he received his [[bachelor's degree]] and [[master's degree]] in [[mathematics]] (simultaneously, his B.S. work being regarded as deserving a masters degree) in 1960 at the [[Case Western Reserve University|Case Institute of Technology]] (now part of [[Case Western Reserve University]]). In 1963, he earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from the [[California Institute of Technology]], where he became a professor and began work on ''[[The Art of Computer Programming]]'', originally planned as a seven-volume series. In 1968, he published the first volume. That same year, he joined the faculty of [[Stanford University]].  


In 1971, Knuth was the recipient of the first [[Association for Computing Machinery|ACM]] [[Grace Murray Hopper Award]]. He has received various other awards including the [[Turing Award]], the [[National Medal of Science]], the [[John von Neumann Medal]] and the [[Kyoto Prize]].  After producing the third volume of his series in 1976, he expressed such frustration with the nascent state of the then newly developed electronic publishing tools (esp. those which provided input to phototypesetters) that he took time out to work on typesetting and created the [[TeX]] and [[METAFONT]] tools.  
Since 1990, Knuth has declined to use electronic mail, declaring it to be too inefficient and time-consuming.  Instead, a secretary monitors an email account on his behalf. He corresponds in "batch mode", such as one day every three months, to be sent by [[postal mail]].<ref name="KnuthEmail">{{cite web
| url=http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/email.html
| title=Email (let's drop the hyphen)
| author=Donald Knuth
| accessdate=2007-09-30
}}</ref>  In recent years, Knuth has given informal lectures a few times a year at [[Stanford University]], which he calls Computer Musings. He is also a visiting professor at the [[Oxford University Computing Laboratory]] in the [[United Kingdom]].


In recognition of Knuth's contributions to the field of [[computer science]], in 1990 he was awarded the singular academic title of ''Professor of the Art of Computer Programming'', which has since been revised to ''Professor [[Emeritus]] of the Art of Computer Programming''.
==Honors and Awards==
# In 1971, Knuth was the first recipient of the [[Grace Murray Hopper Award]]<ref name="AcmAwards">
In 1992 he became an associate of the [[French Academy of Sciences]]. Also that year, he retired from regular research and teaching at [[Stanford University]] in order to finish ''[[The Art of Computer Programming]]''. In 2003 he was elected as a Fellow of the [[Royal Society]]. [[As of 2004]], the first three volumes of his series have been re-issued, and Knuth is currently working on volume four, excerpts of which are released periodically on his website. Meanwhile, Knuth gives informal lectures a few times a year at [[Stanford University]], which he calls Computer Musings. He is also a visiting professor at the [[Oxford University Computing Laboratory]] in the [[United Kingdom]].
{{cite web|url=http://awards.acm.org/listing.cfm|
 
title=Awards given by the ACM|
In addition to his writings on computer science, Knuth is also the author of ''3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated'' (1991), ISBN 0-89579-252-4, in which he attempts to examine the Bible by a process of [[stratified sampling|stratified random sampling]], namely an analysis of chapter 3, verse 16 of each book. Each verse is accompanied by a rendering in calligraphic art, contributed by a group of calligraphers under the leadership of [[Hermann Zapf]].
publisher=http://www.acm.org/ (Association for Computing Machinery)|
 
year=|
==Knuth's humor==
accessdate=2007-09-25}}
Knuth is a [[famous programmer]] known for his [[geek]] [[professional humor]].
</ref> from the [[Association for Computing Machinery|ACM]]<ref name="acm1">
[[Image:knuth-check2.png|thumb|right|One of Donald Knuth's reward checks]]
{{cite web|url=http://www.acm.org/|
*He pays a [[knuth reward check|finder's fee of $2.56]] for any typos/mistakes discovered in his books, because ''"256 pennies is one hexadecimal dollar".'' (His bounty for errata in ''[[3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated]],'' is, however, $3.16). According to an article in [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]]'s ''Technology Review'', these reward checks are "among computerdom's most prized trophies".<ref>[http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/99/09/ditlea0999.asp "Rewriting the Bible in 0's and 1's"] in the [[Technology Review]] of the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]</ref>
title=Association for Computing Machinery|
*Version numbers of his [[TeX]] software approach the [[transcendental number]] [[pi|π]], that is versions increment in the style 3, 3.1, 3.14 and so on. Version numbers of [[Metafont]] approach the number [[E (mathematical constant)|''e'']] similarly.
publisher=http://www.acm.org/|
*He once warned users of his software, ''"Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it."''<ref name="FAQ" />
year=|
*All appendices in the [[Computers and Typesetting]] series have titles that begin with the letter identifying the appendix.
accessdate=2007-09-25}}
* TAOCP v3 (1973) has the index entry "Royalties, use of, 405". Page 405 has no explicit mention of royalties, but does contain a diagram of an "organ-pipe arrangement" in Figure 2. Apparently the purchase of the pipe organ in his home (see '''Personal''' below) was financed by royalties from TAOCP.<ref>[http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/organ.html "Pipe Organ" at Stanford site]</ref>
</ref>.
* From the Preface of ''Concrete Mathematics'': When DEK taught [[Concrete Mathematics]] at Stanford for the first time, he explained the somewhat strange title by saying that it was his attempt to teach a math course that was hard instead of soft. He announced that, contrary to the expectations of some of his colleagues, he was ''not'' going to teach the [[Theory of Aggregates]], nor [[Stone's Embedding Theorem]], nor even the [[Stone-Čech compactification]]. (Several students from the [[civil engineering]] department got up and quietly left the room.)
# In 1974, Knuth received the [[Turing Award]]<ref name="AcmAwards" /> from the [[Association for Computing Machinery|ACM]].
*Knuth published his first "scientific" article in a school magazine in 1957 under the title "[[Potrzebie]] System of Weights and Measures." In it, he defined the [[fundamental unit]] of [[length]] as the thickness of [[MAD Magazine|''MAD'' magazine]] #26, and named the fundamental unit of [[force]] "whatmeworry". ''MAD'' magazine bought the article and published it in the June 1957 issue.
# In 1979, Knuth won a [[National Medal of Science]]<ref name="ScienceMedal">
*Knuth's first "mathematical" article was a short paper submitted to a "science talent search" contest for high-school seniors in 1955, and published in 1960, in which he discussed number systems where the [[radix]] was negative. He further generalized this to number systems where the radix was a complex number. In particular, he defined the [[quater-imaginary base|quater-imaginary number system]], which uses the imaginary number 2i as the base, having the unusual feature that every complex number can be represented with the digits 0, 1, 2, and 3, without a sign.
{{cite web|url=http://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/recip_details.cfm?recip_id=198|
*Knuth's article about [[computational complexity of songs]] was reprinted twice in [[computer science]]  journals.
title=National Medal of Science recipients|
publisher=http://www.nsf.gov/ (National Science Foundation)|
year=|
accessdate=2007-09-25}}
</ref>, given annually since 1959 as a Presidential Award to individuals deserving special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to knowledge.
# In 1992, Knuth became an associate<ref name="FrAcad">
{{cite web|url=http://www.academie-sciences.fr/membres/generalites_gb.htm|
title=French Academy of Sciences|
publisher=http://www.academie-sciences.fr/|
year=|
accessdate=2007-09-25}}
</ref> of the [[French Academy of Sciences]]<ref name="FrAKn">
{{cite web|url=http://www.academie-sciences.fr/membres/K/Knuth_Donald.htm|
title="Donald Knuth in French Academy of Sciences"|
publisher=http://www.stanford.edu/ (Stanford University)|
year=|
accessdate=2007-09-25}}
</ref>.
# In 1995, Knuth received the [[John von Neumann Medal]]<ref name="vNeumannMedal">
{{cite web|url=http://www.ieee.org/portal/pages/about/awards/sums/vonneusum.html|
title=IEEE John von Neumann medal|
publisher=http://www.ieee.org/portal/site/iportals (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.)|
year=|
accessdate=2007-09-25}}
</ref> from the IEEE, which is given for outstanding achievements in computer-related science and technology.
# In 1996, Knuth was awarded the prestigious [[Kyoto Prize]]<ref name="KyotoPrize">
{{cite web|url=http://www.stanford.edu/group/news/stanfordtoday/ed/9609/9609smf201.shtml|
title=Donald Knuth wins Kyoto Prize|
publisher=http://www.stanford.edu/ (Stanford University)|
year=|
accessdate=2007-09-25}}
</ref>, Japan’s highest private award for lifetime achievement.
# In 2003, Knuth was elected a foreign member<ref name="RoySocFM">
{{cite web|url=http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/fellowsindex2.cfm|
title=List of Fellows and Foreign Members of The Royal Society|
publisher=http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/|
year=|
accessdate=2007-09-25}}
</ref> of Britain's [[The Royal Society]]<ref name="RoySoc">
{{cite web|url=http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?id=1019|
title=The Royal Society|
publisher=http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/|
year=|
accessdate=2007-09-25}}
</ref>.


==Personal==
==Personal==
Knuth's hobbies include music, specifically playing the [[organ (music)|organ]]. He has a two-story high pipe organ installed in his home. Knuth disclaims any particular talent in the instrument.
Knuth is married to Jill Knuth<ref>
<ref>[http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/organ.html "Pipe Organ" at Stanford site]</ref>
[http://logic.pdmi.ras.ru/Slissenko60/Knuth.gif Early picture]</ref>, who published a book on [[liturgy]] titled ''Banner without Words'', published by Resource Publications in 1986. They have two children.  Knuth also loves to play the [[organ (music)|organ]] and has a two-story high pipe organ installed in his home<ref name="pipeorgan">
{{cite web|url=http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/organ.html
|title=The Pipe Organ of Don and Jill Knuth
|publisher=Donald Knuth on his home page at Stanford University
|accessdate=2007-09-25}}
</ref>.  He is a member of [[Theta Chi]] fraternity.


He does not use [[e-mail]], saying that he used it from about 1975 until [[January 1]] [[1990]], and that was enough for one lifetime. He finds it more efficient to respond to correspondence in "batch mode", such as one day every three months, to be sent by [[postal mail]].
In addition to his writings on computer science, Knuth is also the author of ''3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated'' (1991), ISBN 0-89579-252-4, in which he attempts to examine the Bible by a process of [[stratified sampling|stratified random sampling]], namely an analysis of chapter 3, verse 16 of each book. Each verse is accompanied by a rendering in calligraphic art, contributed by a group of calligraphers under the leadership of [[Hermann Zapf]].
 
He is married to Jill Knuth, who published a book on [[liturgy]] titled ''Banner without Words'', published by Resource Publications in 1986. They have two children.<ref>
[http://logic.pdmi.ras.ru/Slissenko60/Knuth.gif Early picture]</ref>
 
He is a member of [[Theta Chi]] fraternity.
 
Knuth uses the [[Emacs]] text editor.<ref>http://www.literateprogramming.com/clb93.pdf#search=%22knuth%20emacs%22</ref>
 
==Awards==
* First [[Association for Computing Machinery|ACM]] [[Grace Murray Hopper Award]] - [[1971]]
* [[Turing Award]] - [[1974]]
* [[National Medal of Science]] - [[1979]]
* [[John von Neumann Medal]] - [[1995]]
* [[Kyoto Prize]] - [[1996]]
 
He also has a [[Chinese name]] 高德納 ([[pinyin]]: Gāo Dénà), given in 1977 by Frances Yao just before his first visit to China.<ref name="FAQ" />
 
==Works==
A short list of his works<ref>A complete list is also available: [http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/books.html "Books" at Stanford site]</ref>:
* Donald E. Knuth, [[The Art of Computer Programming]], Volumes 1&ndash;4, Addison-Wesley Professional
# Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms (3rd edition),  1997. Addison-Wesley Professional, ISBN 0-201-89683-4
# Volume 2: Seminumerical Algorithms (3rd Edition), 1997. Addison-Wesley Professional, ISBN 0-201-89684-2
# Volume 3: Sorting and Searching (2nd Edition), 1998. Addison-Wesley Professional, ISBN 0-201-89685-0
# Volume 4: Combinatorial Algorithms, in preparation
# Volume 5: Syntactic Algorithms, in preparation, estimated to be ready in 2015 <ref>http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~uno/taocp.html</ref>
[[Image:Knuth_vol4.jpg|thumb|right|The Art of Computer Programming, Volume 4 fascicle 4]]
* Donald E. Knuth, The Art of Computer Programming, fascicles:
# Volume 1, Fascicle 1: [[MMIX]] &mdash; A RISC Computer for the New Millennium, 2005. ISBN 0-201-85392-2
# Volume 4, Fascicle 2: Generating All Tuples and Permutations, 2005. ISBN 0-201-85393-0
# Volume 4, Fascicle 3: Generating All Combinations and Partitions, 2005. ISBN 0-201-85394-9
# Volume 4, Fascicle 4: Generating All Trees -- History of Combinatorial Generation, 2006. ISBN 0-321-33570-8
* Donald E. Knuth, The TeXbook (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley), 1984. ISBN 0-201-13448-9
* Donald E. Knuth, The METAFONTbook (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley), 1986. ISBN 0-201-13444-6
* [[Ronald Graham|Ronald L. Graham]], Donald E. Knuth, Oren Patashnik, Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science, 2nd edition (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley), 1994. ISBN 0-201-55802-5
*''Selected papers'' series:<ref>[http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/selected.html "Selected Papers" at Stanford site]</ref>
# Donald E. Knuth, Literate Programming (Center for the Study of Language and Information - Lecture Notes), 1992. ''ISBN 0-937073-80-6''
# Donald E. Knuth, Selected Papers on Computer Science (Stanford, California: Center for the Study of Language and Information - CSLI Lecture Notes, no. 59), 1996. ISBN 1-881526-91-7
# Donald E. Knuth, Digital Typography (Stanford, California: Center for the Study of Language and Information - CSLI Lecture Notes, no. 78), 1999. ISBN 1-57586-010-4
# Donald E. Knuth, Selected Papers on Analysis of Algorithms (Stanford, California: Center for the Study of Language and Information - CSLI Lecture Notes, no. 102), 2000. ISBN 1-57586-212-3
# Donald E. Knuth, Selected Papers on Computer Languages (Stanford, California: Center for the Study of Language and Information - CSLI Lecture Notes, no. 139), 2003. ISBN 1-57586-381-2 (cloth), ISBN 1-57586-382-0 (paperback)
# Donald E. Knuth, Selected Papers on Discrete Mathematics (Stanford, California: Center for the Study of Language and Information - CSLI Lecture Notes, no. 106), 2003. ISBN 1-57586-249-2 (cloth), ISBN 1-57586-248-4 (paperback)
# Donald E. Knuth, Selected Papers on Design of Algorithms (scheduled for publication in 2007)
# Donald E. Knuth, Selected Papers on Fun and Games (scheduled for publication in 2007)
 
* Donald E. Knuth, 3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated (Madison, Wisconsin: A-R Editions), 1990. ISBN 0-89579-252-4
* Donald E. Knuth, Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About (Center for the Study of Language and Information - CSLI Lecture Notes no 136), 2001. ISBN 1-57586-326-X


==References==
==References==
<references />
<references />[[Category:Suggestion Bot Tag]]
 
==Interviews, lectures, Q&A==
* Doernberg, D. [http://www.literateprogramming.com/clb93.pdf Computer Literacy Interview With Donald Knuth]. [[7 December]] [[1993]].
* [http://www.tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb17-1/tb50knut.pdf TUG'95 (St Petersburg, FL, USA) Questions and answers with Prof. Donald E. Knuth]. ''TUGboat'' 17 (1), 1996
* Woehr, J. [http://www.ntg.nl/maps/pdf/16_14.pdf An interview with Donald Knuth] ''Dr. Dobb's Journal'', April 1996, p. 16-22.
* [http://www.awprofessional.com/content/images/0201896834/interview/0201896834.html  Donald Knuth on The Art of Computer Programming] Addison-Wesley Innovations, 1996
* [http://bulletin.cstug.cz/pdf/bul964.pdf Questions and Answers with Prof. Donald E. Knuth]. Czech TUG, Charles University, [[Prague]], [[1996]]
* [http://www.ntg.nl/maps/pdf/16_15.pdf Knuth meets NTG members], [[Amsterdam]], [[13 March]] [[1996]].
* [http://www.literateprogramming.com/byte1996.html Knuth Comments on Code], [[Byte magazine]], September 1996.
* [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/4165 Donald Knuth: A life's work in the art of programming] [[Amazon.com]], 1997.
* [http://www.tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb22-1-2/tb70knut.pdf U.K. TUG, Oxford, [[12 September]] [[1999]]: Question & Answer Session with Donald Knuth]. ''TUGboat'', 22 (1/2), 2001.
* [http://technetcast.ddj.com/tnc_catalog.html?item_id=421 Dr. Dobb's Audio & Video Archive of Knuth's ''MMIX'' and ''God & Computers'' Lectures @ MIT, Fall 1999]
* [http://technetcast.ddj.com/tnc_play_stream.html?stream_id=199 Donald Knuth: MMIX, A RISC Computer for the New Millennium]. Audio recording of a presetation at the monthly meeting of the [[Boston, Massachusetts|Boston]] [[Association for Computing Machinery|ACM]] [[30 December]][[1999]]
* Wallace, Mark. [http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/1999/09/16/knuth The art of Don E. Knuth] Interview on [[salon.com]], 1999.
* [http://www.tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb21-2/tb67advo.pdf Advogato, 2000], also available as [http://www.advogato.org/article/28.html HTML Version]
* [http://www.ams.org/notices/200203/fea-knuth.pdf AMS, 2001]
* [http://www.geekchic.com/repliq6.htm Geek Celebs, 2001]
* [http://www.tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb23-3-4/tb75knuth.pdf Oslo, 2002]
* [http://www.heise.de/ct/02/05/190 c't, 2002 (in German)]
* [http://www-x.nzz.ch/folio/archiv/2002/02/articles/haffner.html NZZ Folio, 2002 (in German)]
* [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4532247 Donald Knuth, Founding Artist of Computer Science]. Audio interview by David Kestenbaum on [[National Public Radio]]; or [http://www.soundbytes.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5643&sid=bf7d0d454451865c6409201cf55746f5 Transcript], [[14 March]] [[2005]].
* [http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/interview_knuth Free Software Magazine interview by Gianluca Pignalberi, August 2005].
 
==See also==
*[[Knuth-Morris-Pratt algorithm]]
*[[Knuth shuffle#Shuffling algorithms|Knuth shuffle]]
*[[Knuth's up-arrow notation]]
*[[Asymptotic notation]]
*[[Knuth-Bendix completion algorithm]]
*[[Man or boy test]]
*[[Trabb Pardo-Knuth algorithm]]
*[[Dancing Links]]
*[[Knuth -yllion]]
*[[The Complexity of Songs]]
*[[Knuth Prize]]
*[[Knuth reward check]]
 
==External links==
* [http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/ The Stanford home page of Donald Knuth]
* [http://www.softpanorama.org/People/Knuth/index.shtml Donald Knuth: Leonard Euler of Computer Science (Softpanorama)]
* [http://scpd.stanford.edu/knuth/ Videos of presentations w/ Donald Knuth]
* [http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/potrzebi.gif The Potrzebie System of Weights and Measures]
* [http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2006/mayjun/features/knuth.html Article about Knuth on www.stanfordalumni.org]
* [http://etd.caltech.edu/etd/available/etd-06042004-141331/unrestricted/Knuth_de_1963.pdf Finite Semifields and Projective Planes] - Donald Knuth's Ph.D. dissertation
 
{{Turing award}}
 
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Donald Ervin Knuth, born on January 10, 1938, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is an acclaimed computer scientist, mathematician, and professor emeritus at Stanford University. As the author of the widely-cited, multi-volume The Art of Computer Programming [1], Knuth contributed significantly to the analysis of algorithms. He is also known for having created the TeX typesetting system and of the METAFONT font design system, and pioneering the concept of literate programming. Professor Knuth has accumulated a number of honors and awards.

Academic achievements

In 1960, Knuth simultaneously earned a bachelor's degree and master's degree in mathematics from the Case Institute of Technology (now part of Case Western Reserve University). In 1963, he earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from the California Institute of Technology, where he became a professor and began work on The Art of Computer Programming, originally planned as a seven-volume series.

In 1968, he joined the faculty of Stanford University and published the first volume of The Art of Computer Programming. In 1976, after producing the third volume of The Art of Computer Programming, Knuth created the influential TeX and METAFONT tools as a result of his frustration with the electronic publishing tools used to provide input to photo-typesetters. In 1990, Stanford awarded Knuth the singular academic title of Professor of the Art of Computer Programming, which was revised to Professor Emeritus of the Art of Computer Programming upon his 1992 retirement from teaching at Stanford University. Knuth continued work on The Art of Computer Programming. By 2004, revised versions of the first three volumes had been re-issued, and Knuth continued working on volume four, excerpts of which are released periodically on his website.

Since 1990, Knuth has declined to use electronic mail, declaring it to be too inefficient and time-consuming. Instead, a secretary monitors an email account on his behalf. He corresponds in "batch mode", such as one day every three months, to be sent by postal mail.[2] In recent years, Knuth has given informal lectures a few times a year at Stanford University, which he calls Computer Musings. He is also a visiting professor at the Oxford University Computing Laboratory in the United Kingdom.

Honors and Awards

  1. In 1971, Knuth was the first recipient of the Grace Murray Hopper Award[3] from the ACM[4].
  2. In 1974, Knuth received the Turing Award[3] from the ACM.
  3. In 1979, Knuth won a National Medal of Science[5], given annually since 1959 as a Presidential Award to individuals deserving special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to knowledge.
  4. In 1992, Knuth became an associate[6] of the French Academy of Sciences[7].
  5. In 1995, Knuth received the John von Neumann Medal[8] from the IEEE, which is given for outstanding achievements in computer-related science and technology.
  6. In 1996, Knuth was awarded the prestigious Kyoto Prize[9], Japan’s highest private award for lifetime achievement.
  7. In 2003, Knuth was elected a foreign member[10] of Britain's The Royal Society[11].

Personal

Knuth is married to Jill Knuth[12], who published a book on liturgy titled Banner without Words, published by Resource Publications in 1986. They have two children. Knuth also loves to play the organ and has a two-story high pipe organ installed in his home[13]. He is a member of Theta Chi fraternity.

In addition to his writings on computer science, Knuth is also the author of 3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated (1991), ISBN 0-89579-252-4, in which he attempts to examine the Bible by a process of stratified random sampling, namely an analysis of chapter 3, verse 16 of each book. Each verse is accompanied by a rendering in calligraphic art, contributed by a group of calligraphers under the leadership of Hermann Zapf.

References

  1. ↑ Donald Knuth. "The Art of Computer Programming" (an overview of each volume). Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
  2. ↑ Donald Knuth. Email (let's drop the hyphen). Retrieved on 2007-09-30.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Awards given by the ACM. http://www.acm.org/ (Association for Computing Machinery). Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
  4. ↑ Association for Computing Machinery. http://www.acm.org/.+Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
  5. ↑ National Medal of Science recipients. http://www.nsf.gov/ (National Science Foundation). Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
  6. ↑ French Academy of Sciences. http://www.academie-sciences.fr/.+Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
  7. ↑ "Donald Knuth in French Academy of Sciences". http://www.stanford.edu/ (Stanford University). Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
  8. ↑ IEEE John von Neumann medal. http://www.ieee.org/portal/site/iportals (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.). Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
  9. ↑ Donald Knuth wins Kyoto Prize. http://www.stanford.edu/ (Stanford University). Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
  10. ↑ List of Fellows and Foreign Members of The Royal Society. http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/.+Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
  11. ↑ The Royal Society. http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/.+Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
  12. ↑ Early picture
  13. ↑ The Pipe Organ of Don and Jill Knuth. Donald Knuth on his home page at Stanford University. Retrieved on 2007-09-25.
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