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COMPUTER SCIENTIST

Edsger W. Dijkstra

1930 - 2002

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Edsger Wybe Dijkstra ( DYKE-strə; Dutch: [ˈɛtsxər ˈʋibə ˈdɛikstra] ; 11 May 1930 – 6 August 2002) was a Dutch computer scientist, programmer, software engineer, and science essayist.Born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Dijkstra studied mathematics and physics and then theoretical physics at the University of Leiden. Adriaan van Wijngaarden offered him a job as the first computer programmer in the Netherlands at the Mathematical Center in Amsterdam, where he worked from 1952 until 1962. He formulated and solved the shortest path problem in 1956, and in 1960 developed the first compiler for the programming language ALGOL 60 in conjunction with colleague Jaap A. Zonneveld. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Edsger W. Dijkstra has received more than 1,870,226 page views. His biography is available in 56 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 55 in 2019). Edsger W. Dijkstra is the 8th most popular computer scientist (down from 7th in 2019), the 87th most popular biography from Netherlands (up from 94th in 2019) and the most popular Dutch Computer Scientist.

Edsger Dijkstra is most famous for his work in computer science, particularly in the design of the algorithm for the shortest path problem.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.9M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 64.21

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 56

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 6.63

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.18

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

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Among COMPUTER SCIENTISTS

Among computer scientists, Edsger W. Dijkstra ranks 8 out of 201Before him are Grace Hopper, Tim Berners-Lee, Richard Stallman, Lotfi A. Zadeh, Dennis Ritchie, and Donald Knuth. After him are Niklaus Wirth, George Dantzig, Linus Torvalds, John McCarthy, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin.

Most Popular Computer Scientists in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1930, Edsger W. Dijkstra ranks 42Before him are Biljana Plavšić, Robert Wagner, Carlos Menem, Hugh Everett III, Félix Guattari, and Leon Cooper. After him are Tippi Hedren, Lorin Maazel, Ali al-Sistani, Carlos Kleiber, Yves Chauvin, and Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon. Among people deceased in 2002, Edsger W. Dijkstra ranks 23Before him are James Coburn, Ivan Illich, Rod Steiger, Valeriy Lobanovskyi, Camilo José Cela, and Linda Lovelace. After him are Robert Nozick, Nándor Hidegkuti, Fritz Walter, James Tobin, Jonas Savimbi, and Raf Vallone.

Others Born in 1930

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Others Deceased in 2002

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In Netherlands

Among people born in Netherlands, Edsger W. Dijkstra ranks 87 out of 1,427Before him are Nicolaas Bloembergen (1920), Bernard Haitink (1929), Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562), Geert Hofstede (1928), Judith Leyster (1609), and Lucas van Leyden (1494). After him are Gerard David (1450), Martinus J. G. Veltman (1931), Willem de Kooning (1904), Kees van Dongen (1877), Paul J. Crutzen (1933), and Jan van Goyen (1596).

Among COMPUTER SCIENTISTS In Netherlands

Among computer scientists born in Netherlands, Edsger W. Dijkstra ranks 1After him are Guido van Rossum (1956) and Bram Moolenaar (1961).