COMPUTER SCIENTIST

Edsger W. Dijkstra

1930 - 2002

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Edsger Wybe Dijkstra ( DYKE-strə; Dutch: [ˈɛtsxər ˈʋibə ˈdɛikstraː] ; 11 May 1930 – 6 August 2002) was a Dutch computer scientist, programmer, software engineer, mathematician, and science essayist. Born in Rotterdam in 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 Centre 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

His biography is available in different languages on Wikipedia. Edsger W. Dijkstra is the 11th most popular computer scientist (down from 7th in 2019), the 108th most popular biography from Netherlands (down from 83rd 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.

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Among COMPUTER SCIENTISTS

Among computer scientists, Edsger W. Dijkstra ranks 11 out of 245. Before him are Tim Berners-Lee, John McCarthy, Barbara Liskov, Dennis Ritchie, Frances E. Allen, and Donald Knuth. After him are Geoffrey Hinton, Niklaus Wirth, Lotfi A. Zadeh, Linus Torvalds, Ray Kurzweil, and Marvin Minsky.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1930, Edsger W. Dijkstra ranks 62. Before him are Armin Mueller-Stahl, Lorin Maazel, Félix Guattari, Theodore Edgar McCarrick, Robert Evans, and Ali al-Sistani. After him are Carlos Kleiber, Reinhard Selten, Gena Rowlands, Jesús Franco, Derek Walcott, and Johan Galtung. Among people deceased in 2002, Edsger W. Dijkstra ranks 32. Before him are Alexander Prokhorov, Max Perutz, Victor Weisskopf, Nándor Hidegkuti, Valeriy Lobanovskyi, and Ruth Handler. After him are Geraldine of Albania, Choi Hong Hi, Robert Nozick, Juan Alberto Schiaffino, James Tobin, and Jonas Savimbi.

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In Netherlands

Among people born in Netherlands, Edsger W. Dijkstra ranks 108 out of 1,646. Before him are Gerard ter Borch (1617), Carel Fabritius (1622), Gerrit Dou (1613), Coenraad Jacob Temminck (1778), Pieter Aertsen (1508), and Lucas van Leyden (1494). After him are Harry Mulisch (1927), Norbert of Xanten (1080), Jacobus Arminius (1560), Bernard Mandeville (1670), Willem Schouten (1567), and Willem Claesz. Heda (1594).

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Among COMPUTER SCIENTISTS In Netherlands

Among computer scientists born in Netherlands, Edsger W. Dijkstra ranks 1. After him are Guido van Rossum (1956), Bram Moolenaar (1961), and Mark Overmars (1958).

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