Top 10 Computer Scientists You Should Know

If you are an expert in the computer science industry or are just starting to venture into the field, it might be good to learn about some of the industry pioneers who have achieved astounding accomplishments. Who knows, they might give you the inspiration you need for your own big break. There is so much to learn from the founding members of computer science, and it is important to see the paths they have paved for you and other computer scientists. Keep reading to learn more about the top 10 famous computer scientists who have left their mark not only on the industry, but the world as a whole. 

1. Larry Page

Imagine a world, or even a workday, without the help of Google. Pretty scary, right? That is why you should learn about the man behind a product that is so critical to your everyday life—Larry Page. The ever-important search engine was created by Page and fellow co-founder Sergey Brin. While studying at Stanford, Page started Google as a research project. Soon after, Brin joined in on the development and the two realized that their research project could be used to build a search engine that nobody has ever seen. They were right! 

2. Mark Zuckerberg 

You might have heard of the name before. It is a pretty well-known name in the tech community and well, the world.  It is important to acknowledge and understand his accomplishments amongst other famous computer scientists. Mark Zuckerberg is the founder of the most widely-used social networking platform, Facebook. Famously, Zuckerberg started his platform in his dorm room at Harvard. At first, he designed it to be explicitly used as a networking platform for Harvard students before realizing the greater use for it. Today, Facebook is used to connect friends and families and for businesses to promote their brands and engage with customers. 

3. Barbara Liskov

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Someone you might not have heard about is Barbara Liskov. Liskov helped develop an object-oriented programming language called CLU. This is a significant accomplishment since CLU has become a guidebook for other programming languages—one of them being Java. Not only did she develop CLU, but she also helped to develop Argus, a distributed programming language. Her mark on the tech industry continues to benefit those in the tech industry to this day. She is also the winner of the Turing Award in 2009 and IEEE John von Neumann Medal in 2004.

4. Brendan Eich

Additionally, another great computer scientist who also developed a programming language is Brendan Eich. He developed the programming language JavaScript, which is widely used for HTML pages or browsing pages. More shockingly, Eich developed Java Script in the mere time frame of 10 days. It is amazing how the language he established in 1995 is still used daily by millions of developers. 

5. Bill Gates

One of the biggest names from the computer science industry is, of course, Bill Gates. He began his career writing software for Altair with his friend Paul Allen. They started Microsoft soon after working at Altair together. Gates’s company was worth up to $2.5 million by the time he was 23 years old. Microsoft Office, Windows, and Bill Gates continue to be a household name, and that does not appear to be changing anytime soon. 

6. Elon Musk

Elon Musk is another household name from the industry. Musk is best known for being the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. He began his career working with computers and programming. When Musk was 12, he began teaching himself how to program. This resulted in the creation of his own company, Zip2. After he launched his first company, he began collaborating with another company, which eventually became PayPal. Musk is continuously referred to as the real-life Iron Man for his accomplishments in the computer science industry. 

7. Carl Sassenrath 

If you regularly have a million tabs open on your computer at one time, then Carl Sassenrath is the man to thank for that. He is responsible for a laptop’s ability to complete more than one task at a time. Before Sassenrath created the Amiga Computer, you would have to decide between reading an article, searching on Google, typing a paper, or browsing social media. The Amiga Computer was the first multimedia personal computer. If it were not for his creation, every task done on a computer would take much longer to complete. 

8. Guido van Rossum

Guido Van Rossum is another famous inventor of a programming language in the computer science industry known as Python. Many companies and developers use this language across the world. It can be used to build apps, analyze data, and create scalable applications—to name a few uses. Two famous companies that use Python today are Spotify and Dropbox. 

9. Tim Berners-Lee

Can you imagine having to pay a fee every time that you log on to the internet? That might have been the case if it wasn’t for Tim Berners-Lee. He created the World Wide Web or WWW that is still used to this day. What’s more? He fought to make sure that the world wide web remained without cost and accessible to everyone. 

10. Hedy Lamarr

Another successful female computer scientist is Hedy Lamarr. She was famously known as a Hollywood actress back in 1940s, but behind the scenes, she continued her success as an innovator. She didn’t know it then, but she was paving the way for the tech behind WiFi and Bluetooth, among other things, thanks to the signal technology she had invented. 

Feeling Inspired Yet? 

All the computer scientists listed above contributed to the computer science industry immensely. They have all affected everyday life greatly—from enabling your computer to work on multiple tasks at one time and creating the most widely used search engine, Google. We hope this article will leave you feeling inspired to pursue greater changes in the tech field.