William Allan Wulf (born December 8, 1939) is a computer scientist notable for his work 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

compiler In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs tha ...

s. Until June 2012, he was a university professor and the AT&T Professor of Engineering and Applied Sciences in the Department of Computer Science at the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United States, with highly selective ad ...

Early life and education

Born in Chicago, he attended the

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univers ...

, receiving a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

(B.S.) in

engineering physics Engineering physics, or engineering science, refers to the study of the combined disciplines of physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, and engineering, particularly computer, nuclear, electrical, electronic, aerospace, materials or mechanical en ...

in 1961 and an

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast t ...

(M.S.) in electrical engineering in 1963. He then achieved the first

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

(Ph.D.) in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to practical disciplines (includi ...

from the

in 1968.

Career

In 1970, while at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), he designed the

BLISS BLISS is a system programming language developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) by W. A. Wulf, D. B. Russell, and A. N. Habermann around 1970. It was perhaps the best known system language until C debuted a few years later. Since then, C b ...

programming language and developed a groundbreaking

optimizing compiler In computing, an optimizing compiler is a compiler that tries to minimize or maximize some attributes of an executable computer program. Common requirements are to minimize a program's execution time, memory footprint, storage size, and power cons ...

for it. From 1971–1975, as part of CMUs C.mmp project, he worked on an

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...

(OS)

microkernel In computer science, a microkernel (often abbreviated as μ-kernel) is the near-minimum amount of software that can provide the mechanisms needed to implement an operating system (OS). These mechanisms include low-level address space management, ...

named Hydra which is capability-based,

object-oriented Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of " objects", which can contain data and code. The data is in the form of fields (often known as attributes or ''properties''), and the code is in the form of p ...

, and designed to support a wide range of possible OSs to run on it. With his wife

Anita K. Jones Anita Katherine Jones (born March 10, 1942) is an American computer scientist and former U.S. government official. She was Director, Defense Research and Engineering from 1993 to 1997. Jones was elected a member of the National Academy of Engin ...

, Wulf was a founder and vice president of

Tartan Laboratories Tartan Laboratories, Inc., later renamed Tartan, Inc., was an American software company founded in 1981 and based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, that specialized in programming language compilers, especially for the language Ada. It was based on wor ...

, a

technology company, in 1981. He served as president of the

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of ...

from 1996 to 2007. He chaired the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the

National Research Council National Research Council may refer to: * National Research Council (Canada), sponsoring research and development * National Research Council (Italy), scientific and technological research, Rome * National Research Council (United States), part of ...

from 1992 to 1996. He serves on the Council of the ACM, on the board of directors of

CRDF Global CRDF Global is an independent nonprofit organization that promotes safety, security, and sustainability through science and innovation. CRDF Global was authorized by the U.S. Congress in 1992 under the FREEDOM Support Act and established in 1995 b ...

, and is a reviewing editor of ''

Science Science is a systematic endeavor that Scientific method, builds and organizes knowledge in the form of Testability, testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earli ...

''. In 1994 he was inducted as a Fellow of the ACM. In 2007 Wulf was awarded the honor of delivering the prestigious Charles P. Steinmetz Lecture at

Union College Union College is a private liberal arts college in Schenectady, New York. Founded in 1795, it was the first institution of higher learning chartered by the New York State Board of Regents, and second in the state of New York, after Columbia Co ...

. He was elected to the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

that same year. Wulf's research has also included

computer architecture In computer engineering, computer architecture is a description of the structure of a computer system made from component parts. It can sometimes be a high-level description that ignores details of the implementation. At a more detailed level, the ...

computer security Computer security, cybersecurity (cyber security), or information technology security (IT security) is the protection of computer systems and networks from attack by malicious actors that may result in unauthorized information disclosure, t ...

, and hardware-software codesign.

Personal life

William Wulf is married to

, also a past professor of computer science at the

. They live in Charlottesville, Virginia. Wulf ended his career at the University of Virginia by resigning on Tuesday, June 19, 2012, in protest of the forced resignation of former President Teresa A. Sullivan, in what he calls, "the worst example of corporate governance I have ever seen. After widespread challenges from the faculty, student body, alumni, and the national academic community; and in the face of a direct threat from the Governor of Virginia that he would replace the entire board if they did not resolve the conflict, Sullivan was unanimously rehired some two weeks later.

Publications

* Wulf, W. A., "Programming Without the GOTO", ''Proceedings of the Internationale Federation of Information Processing'', Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, August 1971. * Wulf, W. A., et al., "Reflections on a Systems Programming Language", ''Proceedings of the SIGPLAN Symposium on System Implementation Languages'', Purdue University, October 1971. * McCredie, J., Wulf, W. A., "The Selection of a Computing Alternative", ''Proceedings of the IEEE Computer Conference'', IEEE, Boston, September 1971. * Wulf, W. A., "A Case Against the GOTO", ''Proceedings of the ACM National Conference'', ACM, Boston, August 1972. * Wulf, W. A., and Shaw, M., "Global Variables Considered Harmful", ''

SIGPLAN Notices SIGPLAN is the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on programming languages. Conferences * Principles of Programming Languages (POPL) * Programming Language Design and Implementation (PLDI) * International Symposium on M ...

'' 8(2), February 1973. * Wulf, W. A., Shaw, M., Hilfinger, P. N., and Flon, L., ''Fundamental Structures of Computer Science'' Addison-Wesley, 1980. * Wulf, W. A., Johnson, R., Weinstock, C., Hobbs, S., and Geschke, C., ''

The Design of an Optimizing Compiler ''The Design of an Optimizing Compiler'' (Elsevier Science Ltd, 1980, ), by William Wulf, Richard K. Johnson, Charles B. Weinstock, Steven O. Hobbs, and Charles M. Geschke, was published in 1975 by Elsevier. It describes the BLISS optimizing comp ...

'' American Elsevier Publishing Company, Inc., New York, 1975. * Shaw, M. and Wulf, W., "Tyrannical Languages Still Preempt System Design", ''Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Languages'', April 1992.

References

External links

William Wulf - University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science

- University of Virginia
William A. Wulf personal webpage
- University of Virginia

- University of Virginia {{DEFAULTSORT:Wulf, William American computer scientists Carnegie Mellon University faculty Computer science educators Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Foreign members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering Foreign Members of the Russian Academy of Sciences Living people Members of the American Philosophical Society Scientists from Chicago University of Illinois alumni University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni University of Virginia faculty 1939 births