David Wheeler (computer scientist)

Not to be confused with David A. Wheeler, also a computer scientist.

David John Wheeler
Born	9 February 1927(1927-02-09) Birmingham
Died	13 December 2004(2004-12-13) (aged 77)
Fields	Computer Science
Known for	Burrows-Wheeler transform, Wheeler Jump
Notable awards	Fellow of the Royal Society (1981)

David John Wheeler FRS (9 February 1927–13 December 2004)^[1][2][3][4] was a computer scientist. He was born in Birmingham and gained a scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge to read mathematics, graduating in 1948. He completed the world's first PhD in computer science in 1951.

His contributions to the field included work on the EDSAC and the Burrows-Wheeler transform. Along with Maurice Wilkes and Stanley Gill he is credited with the invention of the subroutine (which they referred to as the closed subroutine), because of which jump to subroutine instruction is often called Wheeler Jump. He was responsible for the implementation of the CAP computer, the first to be based on security capabilities. In cryptography, he was the designer of WAKE and the co-designer of the TEA and XTEA encryption algorithms together with Roger Needham.

Wheeler married Joyce Blackler in August 1957, who herself used EDSAC for her own mathematical investigations as a research student from 1955. He became a Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge in 1964 and formally retired in 1994, although he continued to be an active member of the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory until his death. In 1994 he was inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery. In 2003 he was a Computer History Museum Fellow Award recipient.

Wheeler is often quoted as saying "All problems in computer science can be solved by another level of indirection... Except for the problem of too many layers of indirection."^{[citation needed]} Another quotation attributed to him is "Compatibility means deliberately repeating other people's mistakes."

Publications

• The Preparation of Programs for an Electronic Digital Computer by Maurice Wilkes, David Wheeler, and Stanley Gill; (original 1951); reprinted with new introduction by Martin Campbell-Kelly; 198 pp.; illus; biblio; bios; index; ISBN 0-262-23118-2

References

1. ^ Campbell-Kelly, M. (2006). "David John Wheeler. 9 February 1927 -- 13 December 2004: Elected FRS 1981". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 52: 437. doi:10.1098/rsbm.2006.0030.  edit
2. ^ "Cambridge Computer Laboratory – Obituaries: David Wheeler, 1927–2004". http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/misc/obituaries/wheeler/. Retrieved 2011-07-21. 
3. ^ "Professor David Wheeler - Obituaries, News - The Independent". London. 22 December 2004. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/professor-david-wheeler-698355.html. Retrieved 2011-07-21. 
4. ^ "Obituary: David Wheeler | Education | The Guardian". London. 6 November 2000. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2000/nov/06/guardianobituaries.education. Retrieved 2011-07-21. 

External links

• Oral history interview with David Wheeler, 14 May 1987. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. Wheeler was a research student at the University Mathematical Laboratory at Cambridge from 1948–51, and a pioneer programmer on the EDSAC project. Wheeler discusses projects that were run on EDSAC, user-oriented programming methods, and the influence of EDSAC on the ILLIAC, the ORDVAC, and the IBM 701. Wheeler also notes visits by Douglas Hartree, Nelson Blackman (of ONR), Peter Naur, Aad van Wijngarden, Arthur van der Poel, Friedrich Bauer, and Louis Couffignal.
• Oral history interview with Gene H. Golub. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. Golub discusses the construction of the ILLIAC computer, the work of Ralph Meager and David Wheeler on the ILLIAC design, British computer science, programming, and the early users of the ILLIAC at the University of Illinois.
• Wheeler received the Computer History Museum Fellow Award in 2003.

Persondata
Name	Wheeler, David
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	9 February 1927
Place of birth	Birmingham
Date of death	13 December 2004
Place of death

This biography article of a United Kingdom academic is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: 1927 births 2004 deaths Computer pioneers British computer scientists Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of the British Computer Society Modern cryptographers Information theorists Members of the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Fellows of Darwin College, Cambridge People from Birmingham, West Midlands Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery British academic biography stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужна курсовая? Primary care International Tennis Hall of Fame Look at other dictionaries: David Wheeler — may refer to: David F. Wheeler, American director of theatre and film David Wheeler (actor), American television actor David Wheeler (computer scientist) (1927–2004), British computer scientist David A. Wheeler (born 1965), programmer and author… …   Wikipedia Wheeler — is a family name and may refer to:* Albert H. Wheeler (1915–1994), American academic and politician * Alison Wheeler (born 1972), British singer * Anne Wheeler (born 1946), Canadian film and television director * Benjamin Ide Wheeler (1854–1927) …   Wikipedia David J. Brown — is an American computer scientist. He was one of a small group that helped to develop the system at Stanford that later resulted in Sun Microsystems, and later was a founder Silicon Graphics in 1982. Education Brown received his primary and… …   Wikipedia David A. Wheeler — Not to be confused with David Wheeler, also a computer scientist. David A. Wheeler (born 1965) is a computer scientist.[1] He is best known for his work on Open source software/Free libre software (FLOSS or OSS/FS) and Computer security. Contents …   Wikipedia David Baltimore — Born March 7, 1938( …   Wikipedia Пионер компьютерной техники — Медаль «Пионер компьютерной техники» (Computer Pioneer)  самая престижная награда Компьютерного сообщества IEEE (англ. IEEE Computer Society), учреждена в 1981 году. Вручается за выдающиеся достижения в компьютерных науках, притом… …   Википедия Addison–Wesley — Addison Wesley Страна  США Основано 1942 год Веб сайт …   Википедия Addison-Wesley — Страна …   Википедия Нидхем, Роджер — Роджер Нидхем Roger Needham …   Википедия Martin David Kruskal — Born September 28, 1925(1925 09 28) New York City …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”