To Open The Sky
The Front Pages of Christopher P. Winter
The Notable Names Quizzes
Here the named individuals are briefly identified. More information can be found by following the links.
Game 001 — 20 July 2020
| John Horton Conway, FRS (26 December 1937 – 11 April 2020) was an English mathematician and the inventor of Conway's Game of Life, a computer game in which simple rules generate complex behavior. |
| Lynn Ann Conway (born 2 January 1938) is an American computer scientist, electrical engineer, inventor, and transgender activist. She worked on supercomputer design at IBM, but was fired after she revealed her transition to female. Some time later she joined the staff at Xerox PARC where, collaborating with Carver Mead, she co-authored the ground-breaking text Introduction to VLSI Systems. |
| Robert Hutchings Goddard (5 October 1882 – 10 August 1945) was an American engineer and professor of physics. As Randall noted, he was the first in the U.S. to demonstrate practical rockets powered by liquid fuels, and is known as the father of American rocketry. |
| Grace Brewster Murray Hopper (December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) earned a Ph.D. from Yale and taught mathematics at Vassar College. She tried to enlist in the Navy during World War II but, being 34, was rejected. She joined the Naval Reserve instead. In 1944 she joined the team working on the Harvard Mark I computer. Later she worked on the UNIVAC computer at Eckert-Mauchly Computer Corporation, and began work on computer programming languages that led to COBOL (Common Business-Oriented Language), in which programs are written using English language. |
| Donald Ervin Knuth (born 10 January 1938) is an American computer scientist, mathematician, and professor emeritus at Stanford University. He contributed to the development of the rigorous analysis of the computational complexity of algorithms and is the author of the multi-volume work The Art of Computer Programming. |
| Olga Alexandrovna Ladyzhenskaya (7 March 1922 – 12 January 2004) was a Russian mathematician who worked on partial differential equations, fluid dynamics, and the finite difference method for the Navier–Stokes equations. She received the Lomonosov Gold Medal in 2002. She is the author of more than two hundred scientific works, among which are six monographs. |
| Donald E. Lancaster (26 December 1937 – 11 April 2020) is an American electronics expert, author, and microcomputer pioneer. He is known for The CMOS Cookbook and other books for electronics hobbyists. He is also a longtime contributor to technical magazines. See his personal Web site. |
| Carver Andress Meade (born 1 May 1934) is an American scientist and engineer. He currently holds the position of Gordon and Betty Moore Professor Emeritus of Engineering and Applied Science at the California Institute of Technology, having taught there for over 40 years. He is the co-author with Lynn Conway of the text Introduction to VLSI Systems. |
| In her short life, mathematician Emmy Noether (23 March 1882 – 14 April 1935) changed the face of physics. Norbert Weiner and several others described her as the most important woman in the history of mathematics. |
| Known as Lady Death, Lyudmila Pavlichenko (1916 – 1974) was a Soviet sniper in the Red Army during World War II, credited with 309 confirmed kills, making her the most successful female sniper in recorded history. |
| Malvina Milder Reynolds (August 23, 1900 – March 17, 1978) was an American folk/blues singer-songwriter and political activist. She is best known for her songwriting, particularly for the songs "Little Boxes" and "What Have They Done to the Rain." |
