Peter Jay Weinberger (born August 6, 1942) 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 ...

best known for his early work at Bell Labs. He now works at Google. Weinberger was an undergraduate at

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

, graduating in 1964. He received his PhD in mathematics ( number theory) in 1969 from the University of California, Berkeley under Derrick Henry Lehmer for a thesis entitled "Proof of a Conjecture of Gauss on Class Number Two". After holding a position in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he continued his work in

analytic number theory In mathematics, analytic number theory is a branch of number theory that uses methods from mathematical analysis to solve problems about the integers. It is often said to have begun with Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet's 1837 introduction of Diric ...

, he moved to AT&T Bell Labs. At Bell Labs, Weinberger contributed to the design of the AWK programming language (he is the "W" in AWK), and the Fortran compiler f77. A detailed explanation of his contributions to AWK and other Unix tools is found in a
interview transcript
at Princeton University. Another interview sheds some light on his work at Google. Both interviews also confirm rumors about his involvement in early digital photography, especially the abuse of a photograph of his face for demonstrating digital imaging effects. When Peter Weinberger was promoted to head of Computer Science Research at Bell Labs, his picture was merged with the AT&T "death star" logo of the mid-80s, creating th
PJW Face
image that has appeared in innumerable locations, including T-shirts, coffee mugs, CDs, and at least one water tower. Th
sole remaining PJW Face
at Bell Labs is somewhat in disarray, but there are plans afoot to repair it. Prior to joining Google, Weinberger was chief technology officer at

Renaissance Technologies Renaissance Technologies LLC, also known as RenTech or RenTec, is an American hedge fund based in East Setauket, New York, on Long Island, which specializes in systematic trading using quantitative models derived from mathematical and statisti ...

. Weinberger has been a member of the

JASON defense advisory group JASON is an independent group of elite scientists which advises the United States government on matters of science and technology, mostly of a sensitive nature. The group was created in the aftermath of the Sputnik launch as a way to reinvigorate ...

since 1990. He has an Erdos Number of 2.

Writings

* ''The book's webpage includes downloads of the current implementation of Awk and links to others.''

References

External links

*
Web site dedicated to PJW's face
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Weinberger, Peter J. Living people American computer scientists Scientists at Bell Labs Google employees Programming language designers Swarthmore College alumni 1942 births American chief technology officers University of Michigan faculty Members of JASON (advisory group) 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews