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CONTACT: Virginia Gold
212-626-0505
v_gold@acm.org
IMMEDIATE
2001 TURING AWARD WINNERS SUCCUMB WITHIN TWO MONTHS OF EACH OTHER
Norwegian Team Developed Concepts for Software Now in Home Entertainment Devices
New York, August 14, 2002 -- The recipients of the 2001 A.M. Turing Award,
considered the "Nobel Prize of Computing," Ole-Johan Dahl and Kristen Nygaard of Norway,
have died with two months of each other. The pair was honored in April 2002, by ACM for
their role in the invention of object-oriented programming, the most widely used
programming model today. Dahl, 71, died in June, and Nygaard, who was 75, passed away on
August 10.
Their work has led to a fundamental change in how software systems are designed and
programmed, resulting in reusable, reliable, scalable applications that have streamlined
the process of writing software code and facilitated software programming. Current
object-oriented programming languages include C++ and Java. They are both widely used in
programming a wide range of applications from large-scale distributed systems to small,
personal applications, including personal computers, home entertainment devices, and
standalone arcade applications. The A.M.Turing Award carries a $25,000 prize.
The discrete event simulation language (Simula I) and general programming language (Simula
67) developed by Dahl and Nygaard at the Norwegian Computing Center in Oslo, Norway in the
1960's, led the way for software programmers to build software systems in layers of
abstraction. With this approach, each layer of a system relies on a platform implemented
by the lower layers. Their approach has resulted in programming that is both accessible
and available to the entire research community.
"The work of Drs. Dahl and Nygaard has been instrumental in developing a remarkably
responsive programming model which has become the dominant style for implementing programs
with large numbers of interacting components," said John R. White, executive director and
CEO of ACM. The awards committee noted that the core concepts embodied in their
object-oriented methods were designed for both system description and programming, and
provided not just a logical but a notational basis for their ideas. The benefits of their
work are not limited to software but are applicable to business processes as well.
Drs. Dahl and Nygaard were professors (emeriti) of informatics at the University of Oslo.
They developed their object-oriented programming concepts at the Norwegian Computing
Center from 1961-67. Professor Nygaard was involved in large-scale simulation studies at
the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment from 1949-60. He continued his work on
object-orientation, and did research on systems development, participative system design,
and societal consequences of information technology. With Danish colleagues, he invented
Beta, a general object-oriented language.
Professor Dahl also worked at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment, and joined the
Simula project as an experienced designer and implementer of basic software as well as
high level programming language. In 1968, Dahl became the first professor of informatics
at the University of Oslo, responsible for establishing research and education programs in
this rapidly expanding field. His focus on computer program verification led to the
development of his theory of constructive types and subtypes based on computer-aided
concept formation and reasoning.
About ACM
The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) is a major force in advancing the skills of information technology
professionals and students. ACM serves its global membership by delivering cutting edge technical information and
transferring ideas from theory to practice. ACM hosts the computing industry's leading Portal to Computing
Literature. With its world-class journals and magazines, dynamic special interest groups, numerous conferences,
workshops and electronic forums, ACM is a primary resource for the information technology field. For additional
information about ACM, visit our web site at www.acm.org.
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