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The best way to predict
the future is to invent it!
— Alan Kay
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| Alan Kay is
one of the earliest pioneers of object-oriented programming, personal computing,
and graphical user interfaces. His contributions been recognized with the
Charles Stark Draper Prize of the National Academy of Engineering
(1) , the A.M. Turing Award from the Association of Computing Machinery(2)
, and the Kyoto Prize from the Inamori Foundation(3)
. This work was done in the rich context of ARPA and Xerox PARC with many
talented colleagues. |
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While at the ARPA project at
the University of Utah in the late 60s, he invented dynamic object-oriented
programming, was part of the original team that developed continuous tone
3D graphics, was the codesigner of the FLEX Machine(4)
, an early desktop computer with graphical user interface and object-oriented
operating system, conceived the Dynabook, a laptop personal computer for
children of all ages, and participated in the design of the ARPAnet. |
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At Xerox PARC, inspired by children(5)
, he invented Smalltalk, the first completely object-oriented programming,
authoring and operating system (which included the now ubiqui-tous overlapping
window interface), instigated the bit-map screen, screen painting and animation,
participated in desk-top publishing, other desktop media, and the development
of the Alto, the first modern networked personal computer. This was part
of the larger process at PARC that created an entire genre of personal computing
including: the GUI, Ethernet, Laserprinting, modern word processing, client-servers
and peer-peer networking. |
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He has been a Xerox Fellow,
Chief Scientist of Atari, Apple Fellow, Disney Fellow, and HP Senior Fellow.
In 2001 he founded Viewpoints Research Institute, a non-profit organization
dedicated to children and learning. He is currently an Adjunct Professor
of Computer Science at UCLA a Visiting Professor at Kyoto University, and
an Adjunct Professor at MIT. |
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He has been elected
a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy
of Engineering, the Royal Society of Arts, and the Computer History Museum. |
| He has a BA in Mathematics and
Biology with minor concentrations in English and Anthropology from the University
of Colorado, 1966. MS and PhD in Computer Science (1968 and 1969, both with
distinction) from the University of Utah, and Honorary Doctorates from the
Kungl Tekniska Hoegskolan in Stockholm, Columbia College in Chicago, Georgia Tech, the University of Pisa in Italy and the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. |
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Other honors include: J-D Warnier
Prix d'Informatique, ACM Systems Software Award(6)
, NEC Computers & Communication Foundation Prize, Funai Foundation Prize,
Lewis Branscomb Technology Award, and the ACM SIGCSE Award for Outstanding
Contributions to Computer Science Education.
He entered show business in the 50s as a professional jazz guitarist. Much
of his subsequent work combined music and theatrical production. Today he
is an avid amateur classical pipe organist. |
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(1)with Robert
Taylor, Butler Lampson, and Charles Thacker, 2004. “for the vision,
conception, and development of the first practical networked personal computers”
(2)2003 “for pioneering many of the ideas at the root of contemporary
object-oriented programming languages, leading the team that developed Smalltalk,
and for fundamental contributions to personal computing”
(3)2004, for “creation of the concept of modern personal computing
and contribution to its realization”
(4)with Ed Cheadle
(5)after meeting Seymour Papert and seeing the amazing work he was doing
with children and LOGO
(6)with Dan Ingalls and Adele Goldberg
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