William Allan Wulf (born December 8, 1939) is a

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 (al ...

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 that ...

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 university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia. Founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson, the university is ranked among the top academic institutions in the United S ...

Early life and education

Born in Chicago, he attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 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 of ...

(B.S.) in engineering physics 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 to ...

(M.S.) in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

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 Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...

(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 Applied science, practical discipli ...

from the

in 1968.

Career

In 1970, while at

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. One of its predecessors was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools; it became the Carnegie Institute of Technology ...

(CMU), he designed the BLISS programming language and developed a groundbreaking optimizing compiler for it. From 1971–1975, as part of CMUs

C.mmp The C.mmp was an early ''multiple instruction, multiple data'' (Multiple instruction, multiple data, MIMD) Multiprocessing, multiprocessor system developed at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) by William Wulf (1971). The notation ''C.mmp'' came fro ...

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 in ...

(OS) microkernel named

Hydra Hydra generally refers to: * Lernaean Hydra, a many-headed serpent in Greek mythology * ''Hydra'' (genus), a genus of simple freshwater animals belonging to the phylum Cnidaria Hydra or The Hydra may also refer to: Astronomy * Hydra (constel ...

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 pro ...

, 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 Engine ...

, Wulf was a founder and vice president of Tartan Laboratories, a

technology company, in 1981. He served as president of the National Academy of Engineering 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 ACM or A.C.M. may refer to: Aviation * AGM-129 ACM, 1990–2012 USAF cruise missile * Air chief marshal * Air combat manoeuvring or dogfighting * Air cycle machine * Arica Airport (Colombia) (IATA: ACM), in Arica, Amazonas, Colombia Computing * ...

, 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 builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

''. 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 The Charles Proteus Steinmetz Memorial Lecture is a series of academic lectures initiated in 1925 in honor of celebrated mathematician and electrical engineer Charles Proteus Steinmetz. To date seventy four addresses have been given on subjects r ...

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,

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, the ...

, 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 Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...

. 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 Teresa Ann "Terry" Sullivan (born July 9, 1949) is an American sociology professor and university administrator. She was the Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs of Michigan State University from October 2019 to June ...

, 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 Geschke, Charles M. Geschke, was published in 1975 by Elsevier. It describes the BLISS ...

'' 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