Ambrosius Paul Speiser (13 November 1922, in
Basel
, french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese
, neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (B ...
– 10 May 2003, in
Aarau
, neighboring_municipalities= Buchs, Suhr, Unterentfelden, Eppenberg-Wöschnau, Erlinsbach
, twintowns = Neuchâtel (Switzerland), Delft (Netherlands), Reutlingen (Germany)
Aarau (, ) is a town, a municipality, and the capital of the ...
) was a Swiss engineer and scientist. He led the development of the first Swiss
computer
A computer is a machine that can be programmed to carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations ( computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as programs. These prog ...
.
Speiser studied
electrotechnology at
Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH), where in 1948 he earned his
diplom
A ''Diplom'' (, from grc, δίπλωμα ''diploma'') is an academic degree in the German-speaking countries Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and a similarly named degree in some other European countries including Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, ...
in communications engineering. In 1949,
Eduard Stiefel
Eduard L. Stiefel (21 April 1909 – 25 November 1978) was a Swiss mathematician. Together with Cornelius Lanczos and Magnus Hestenes, he invented the conjugate gradient method, and gave what is now understood to be a partial construction of the ...
sent
Heinz Rutishauser
Heinz Rutishauser (30 January 1918 – 10 November 1970) was a Swiss mathematician and a pioneer of modern numerical mathematics and computer science.
Life
Rutishauser's father died when he was 13 years old and his mother died three years lat ...
and Speiser to study in
Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
under
Howard H. Aiken and in
Princeton
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nin ...
under
John von Neumann
John von Neumann (; hu, Neumann János Lajos, ; December 28, 1903 – February 8, 1957) was a Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, computer scientist, engineer and polymath. He was regarded as having perhaps the widest c ...
; Rutishauser and Speiser became acquainted with the
Harvard Mark III
The Harvard Mark III, also known as ADEC (for Aiken Dahlgren Electronic Calculator) was an early computer that was partially electronic and partially electromechanical. It was built at Harvard University under the supervision of Howard Aiken for ...
and the
IAS machine
The IAS machine was the first electronic computer built at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey. It is sometimes called the von Neumann machine, since the paper describing its design was edited by John von Neumann, a ...
. In 1950, the Institut für angewandte Mathematik (Institute for Applied Mathematics, founded in 1948) of ETH could acquire the
Zuse Z4
The Z4 was arguably the world's first commercial digital computer. It was designed, and manufactured by early computer scientist Konrad Zuse's company ''Zuse Apparatebau'', for an order placed by Henschel & Son, in 1942; though only partially a ...
, but there were no other commercially available electronic computers which were suitable for scientific applications. This led the Swiss to the idea of developing their own computer. Under Speiser's technical direction between 1950 and 1955, Switzerland's first electronic calculating machine,
ERMETH, originated.
Speiser earned his
doctorate
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''l ...
and
habilitation
Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including ...
during the development of ERMETH, but began an industrial career when he joined
IBM in 1955. From 1956 to 1966 he was the director of
IBM Zurich Research Laboratory
IBM Research is the research and development division for IBM, an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, with operations in over 170 countries. IBM Research is the largest industrial research org ...
in
Rüschlikon
Rüschlikon is a municipality in the district of Horgen in the canton of Zürich in Switzerland. It is located on the west shore of Lake Zürich.
Coat of arms
Its coat of arms features a white shield showing a red rose with a yellow cente ...
. In 1966 he left IBM to become the director of research for
Brown, Boveri & Cie
Brown, Boveri & Cie. (Brown, Boveri & Company; BBC) was a Swiss group of electrical engineering companies.
It was founded in Zürich, in 1891 by Charles Eugene Lancelot Brown and Walter Boveri who worked at the Maschinenfabrik Oerlikon. In 19 ...
in order to develop the company's research center in
Dättwil. He also served as the second president 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 ...
from 1965 to 1968.
In 1962 ETH made Speiser a full professor. For years, he taught one of the first courses in computer science at the ETH. In 1986 ETH honored him with an honorary doctorate for his pioneering work at the frontier of
informatics
Informatics is the study of computational systems, especially those for data storage and retrieval. According to ACM ''Europe and'' '' Informatics Europe'', informatics is synonymous with computer science and computing as a profession, in which t ...
. The Schweizerische Akademie der Technischen Wissenschaften chose Speiser on 1987 as president of its executive committee and upon his resignation in 1993 made him an honorary member. Speiser was also a member of the Schweizerischen Schulrats, member of the board of trustees of the Schweizerischer Nationalfonds, and from 1983 to 1988 president of Vororts (now
Economiesuisse
Economiesuisse is a Swiss corporate union, composed of the fusion of the Union suisse du commerce et de l'industrie ("Swiss union of commerce and industry") or Vorort, and of the Société pour le développement de l'économie suisse ("society f ...
).
Works
* Ambros P. Speiser: ''Entwurf eines elektronischen Rechengerätes unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Erfordernis eines minimalen Materialaufwandes bei gegebener mathematischer Leistungsfähigkeit.'' Dissertation ETH Zürich, 1950.
* Heinz Rutishauser, Ambros Paul Speiser, Eduard Stiefel: ''Programmgesteuerte digitale Rechengeräte (Elektronische Rechenmaschinen).'' Basel: Birkhäuser, 1951.
* Ambros P. Speiser: ''Ueber die Zukunft der Technik. Eine weltweite Betrachtung.'' Referat und Diskussion der 33. Sitzung der Studiengruppe Energieperspektiven, Baden, 28. Januar 1988.
References
External links
*
*
*
* Evelyn Boesch Trüeb
''Speiser, Ambros.''Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (in German).
ETH Zürich: BiographiePorträt des Monatsder ETH-Bibliothek
{{DEFAULTSORT:Speiser, Ambrosius
20th-century Swiss engineers
ETH Zurich alumni
ETH Zurich faculty
1922 births
2003 deaths