UTexas的网站上关于Dijkstra生平的一些介绍
Edsger Wybe Dijkstra: 1930-2002
Professor Edsger Wybe Dijkstra, a noted pioneer of the science and industry o
f computing, died after a long struggle with cancer on 6 August 2002 at his h
ome in Nuenen, the Netherlands.
Dijkstra was born in 1930 in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, the son of a chemist
father and a mathematician mother. He graduated from the Gymnasium Erasmianu
m in Rotterdam and obtained degrees in mathematics and theoretical physics fr
om the University of
Leyden and a Ph.D. in computing science from the University of Amsterdam. He
worked as a programmer at the Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam, 1952-62; was p
rofessor of mathematics, Eindhoven University of Technology, 1962-1984; and w
as a Burroughs
Corporation research fellow, 1973-1984. He held the Schlumberger Centennial C
hair in Computing Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin, 1984-1999, a
nd retired as Professor Emeritus in 1999.
Dijkstra is survived by his wife of over forty years, Maria (Ria) C. Dijkstra
Debets, by three children, Marcus J., Femke E., and computer scientist Rutge
r M. Dijkstra, and by two grandchildren.
Dijkstra was the 1972 recipient of the ACM Turing Award, often viewed as the
Nobel Prize for computing. He was a member of the Netherlands Royal Academy o
f Arts and Sciences, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a
nd a Distinguished
Fellow of the British Computer Society. He received the 1974 AFIPS Harry Good
e Award, the 1982 IEEE Computer Pioneer Award, and the 1989 ACM SIGCSE Award
for Outstanding Contributions to Computer Science Education. Athens Universit
y of Economics
awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2001. In 2002, the C&C Foundation of Jap
an recognized Dijkstra "for his pioneering contributions to the establishment
of the scientific basis for computer software through creative research in b
asic software theory,
algorithm theory, structured programming, and semaphores".
Dijkstra is renowned for the insight that mathematical logic is and must be t
he basis for sensible computer program construction and for his contributions
to mathematical methodology. He is responsible for the idea of building oper
ating systems as
explicitly synchronized sequential processes, for the formal development of c
omputer programs, and for the intellectual foundations for the disciplined co
ntrol of nondeterminacy. He is well known for his amazingly efficient shortes
t path algorithm and
for having designed and coded the first Algol 60 compiler. He was famously th
e leader in the abolition of the GOTO statement from programming.
Dijkstra was a prodigious writer. His entire collection of over thirteen hund
red written works was digitally scanned and is accessible at http://www.cs.ut
exas.edu/users/EWD. He also corresponded regularly with hundreds of friends a
nd colleagues over
the years --not by email but by conventional post. He strenuously preferred t
he fountain pen to the computer in producing his scholarly output and letters
.
Dijkstra was notorious for his wit, eloquence, and way with words, such as in
his remark "The question of whether computers can think is like the question
of whether submarines can swim"; his advice to a promising researcher, who a
sked how to select a
topic for research: "Do only what only you can do"; and his remark in his Tur
ing Award lecture "In their capacity as a tool, computers will be but a rippl
e on the surface of our culture. In their capacity as intellectual challenge,
they are without
precedent in the cultural history of mankind."
Dijkstra enriched the language of computing with many concepts and phrases, s
uch as structured programming, separation of concerns, synchronization, deadl
y embrace, dining philosophers, weakest precondition, guarded command, the ex
cluded miracle, and
the famous "semaphores" for controlling computer processes. The Oxford Englis
h Dictionary cites his use of the words "vector" and "stack" in a computing c
ontext.
Dijkstra enjoyed playing Mozart for his friends on his Boesendorfer piano. He
and his wife had a fondness for exploring state and national parks in their
Volkswagen bus, dubbed the Touring Machine, in which he wrote many technical
papers.
Throughout his scientific career, Dijkstra formulated and pursued the highest
academic ideals of scientific rigour untainted by commercial, managerial, or
political considerations. Simplicity, beauty, and eloquence were his hallmar
ks, and his
uncompromising insistence on elegance in programming and mathematics was an i
nspiration to thousands. He judged his own work by the highest standards and
set a continuing challenge to his many friends to do the same. For the rest,
he willingly
undertook the role of Socrates, that of a gadfly to society, repeatedly goadi
ng his native and his adoptive country by remarking on the mistakes inherent
in fashionable ideas and the dangers of time-serving compromises. Like Socrat
es, his most
significant legacy is to those who engaged with him in small group discussion
s or scientific correspondence about half-formulated ideas and emerging disco
veries. Particularly privileged are those who attended his reading groups in
Eindhoven and Austin,
known as the "Tuesday Afternoon Clubs".
At Dijkstra's passage, let us recall Phaedo's parting remark about Socrates:
"we may truly say that of all the men of his time whom we have known, he was
the wisest and justest and best."