Adriaan "Aad" van Wijngaarden (2 November 1916 – 7 February 1987) was a Dutch

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

and

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (a ...

. Trained as an engineer, Van Wijngaarden would emphasize and promote the mathematical aspects of computing, first in

numerical analysis Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation (as opposed to symbolic manipulations) for the problems of mathematical analysis (as distinguished from discrete mathematics). It is the study of numerical methods ...

, then in

programming language A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language. The description of a programming ...

s and finally in design principles of such languages.

Biography

His education was in

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and mathematics principles with materials science, to design, analyze, manufacture, ...

, for which he received a degree from

Delft University of Technology Delft University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Delft), also known as TU Delft, is the oldest and largest Dutch public technical university, located in Delft, Netherlands. As of 2022 it is ranked by QS World University Rankings among ...

in 1939. He then studied for a doctorate in

hydrodynamics In physics and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids— liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including ''aerodynamics'' (the study of air and other gases in motion) a ...

, but abandoned the field. He joined the Nationaal Luchtvaartlaboratorium in 1945 and went with a group to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

the next year to learn about new technologies that had been developed there during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Van Wijngaarden was intrigued by the new idea of automatic

computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, ...

. On 1 January 1947, he became the head of the Computing Department of the brand-new Mathematisch Centrum (MC) in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

. He then made further visits to England and the United States, gathering ideas for the construction of the first Dutch computer, the ARRA, an electromechanical device first demonstrated in 1952. In that same year, Van Wijngaarden hired Edsger Dijkstra, and they worked on software for the ARRA. in 1958, while visiting

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

, Scotland, Van Wijngaarden was seriously injured in an automobile accident in which his wife was killed. After he recovered, he focused more on programming language research. In 1959, he became member of the

Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...

. In 1961, he became the director of the Mathematisch Centrum in Amsterdam and remained in that post for the next twenty years. He was one of the designers of the original

ALGOL ALGOL (; short for "Algorithmic Language") is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in 1958. ALGOL heavily influenced many other languages and was the standard method for algorithm description used by the ...

language, and later

ALGOL 68 ALGOL 68 (short for ''Algorithmic Language 1968'') is an imperative programming language that was conceived as a successor to the ALGOL 60 programming language, designed with the goal of a much wider scope of application and more rigorously d ...

, for which he developed a two-level type of

formal grammar In formal language theory, a grammar (when the context is not given, often called a formal grammar for clarity) describes how to form strings from a language's alphabet that are valid according to the language's syntax. A grammar does not describe ...

that became known as a Van Wijngaarden grammar. In 1962, he became involved with developing

international standard international standard is a technical standard developed by one or more international standards organization, standards organizations. International standards are available for consideration and use worldwide. The most prominent such organization ...

s in programming and informatics, as a member of the

International Federation for Information Processing The International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) is a global organisation for researchers and professionals working in the field of computing to conduct research, develop standards and promote information sharing. Established in 196 ...

(IFIP) IFIP Working Group 2.1 on Algorithmic Languages and Calculi, which specified, maintains, and supports the

ALGOL 60 ALGOL 60 (short for ''Algorithmic Language 1960'') is a member of the ALGOL family of computer programming languages. It followed on from ALGOL 58 which had introduced code blocks and the begin and end pairs for delimiting them, representing a ...

and

Van Wijngaarden Awards

Awarded every 5 years from the 60th anniversary of

Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica The (abbr. CWI; English: "National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science") is a research centre in the field of mathematics and theoretical computer science. It is part of the institutes organization of the Dutch Research C ...

in 2006. Consists of a bronze sculpture. * 2006: Computer scientist

Nancy Lynch Nancy Ann Lynch (born January 19, 1948) is a mathematician, a theorist, and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the NEC Professor of Software Science and Engineering in the EECS department and heads the "Theory of D ...

and mathematician-magician

Persi Diaconis Persi Warren Diaconis (; born January 31, 1945) is an American mathematician of Greek descent and former professional magician. He is the Mary V. Sunseri Professor of Statistics and Mathematics at Stanford University. He is particularly kno ...

. * 2011: Computer scientist

Éva Tardos Éva Tardos (born 1 October 1957) is a Hungarian mathematician and the Jacob Gould Schurman Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University. Tardos's research interest is algorithms. Her work focuses on the design and analysis of efficient ...

and numerical mathematician John C. Butcher. * 2016: Computer scientist Xavier Leroy and statistician

Sara van de Geer Sara Anna van de Geer (born 7 May 1958, Leiden) is a Dutch statistician who is a professor in the department of mathematics at ETH Zurich.. She is the daughter of psychologist John P. van de Geer. Education She earned a master's degree in 1 ...

. * 2021: Computer scientist

Marta Kwiatkowska Marta Zofia Kwiatkowska is a Polish theoretical computer scientist based in the United Kingdom. Kwiatkowska is Professor of Computing Systems in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Oxford, England, and a Fellow of ...

and statistician Susan Murphy.

References

External links

*
Rekenmeisjes en rekentuig
door Gerard Alberts. ''Pythagoras''.
Adriaan van Wijngaarden (1916-1987)
''Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederlandse Wiskundigen''.
Aad van Wijngaarden’s 100th Birthday
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wijngaarden, Aad 1916 births 1987 deaths Dutch computer scientists 20th-century Dutch inventors Formal methods people Programming language designers Delft University of Technology alumni Scientists from Rotterdam Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

Biography

Van Wijngaarden Awards

See also

References

External links