Page of Tribute
Kristen Nygaard 1926 - 2002
Ole Johan Dahl Page of tribute Memorial site for Kristen Nygaard
Commanders of the Norwegian Order of St. Olaf, 2000
The A.M. Turing Award
COMPUTING'S HIGHEST HONOR AWARDED TO INVENTORS OF DOMINANT PROGRAMMING STYLE
Norwegian Team Developed Concepts for Software Now in Home Entertainment Devices
ACM/Press release, New York, February 5, 2002...The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has presented the 2001 A.M. Turing Award, considered the "Nobel Prize of Computing," to Ole-Johan Dahl and Kristen Nygaard of Norway for their role in the invention of object-oriented programming, the most widely used programming model today. 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, 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 that is both flexible and agile when it is applied to complex software design and implementation," said John R. White, executive director and CEO of ACM. "It is the dominant style for implementing programs with large numbers of interacting components." 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 are 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.
ACM will present the A.M. Turing Award, its most prestigious technical honor, at the annual ACM Awards Banquet April 27, 2002, at the University of Toronto. The award was named for A. M. Turing, a pioneer in the computing field. Financial support for the award is provided by InterTrust Technologies Corp.'s Strategic Technologies and Architectural Research Laboratory.
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 to the information technology field. For additional information about ACM and the ACM Portal, see www.acm.org
The IEEE John von Neumann Medal
"For the introduction of the concepts underlying object-oriented programming through the design and implementation of SIMULA 67."
Professor emeritus Kristen Nygaard at The Simula Research Laboratory and
professor emeritus Ole-Johan Dahl at the University of Oslo’s Department
of Informatics have been awarded the John von Neumann Medal for 2002. The medal
is awarded each year by Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and is considered to be one of the most
prestigious awards available to computer scientists. The IEEE John von Neumann
Medal was established by the Board of Directors in 1990 and may be presented
annually "for outstanding achievements in computer-related science and
technology." The achievements may be theoretical, technological, or
entrepreneurial, and need not have been made immediately prior to the date of
the award.
The award is a recognition of the Norwegian scientists’
important contribution to modern computing, by their introduction of the
concepts underlying object oriented programming. Through the design and
implementation of the computer language Simula 67 they developed a completely
new way of programming computers. The most important computer languages today,
for instance Java, are based on the discoveries made during the development of
Simula. Object oriented thinking is also a base technology of modern PC’s,
forming the foundation for the user-interfaces allowing us to, for example,
cut, paste, copy and save by very simple operations. Nygaard and Dahl have
previously been recognised as Commanders of the Norwegian Order of St. Olaf for
their contribution to the development of computer technology.
The IEEE
John von Neumann medal is named in honor of the eminent mathematician, John von
Neumann, whose work at Princeton University's Institute for Advanced Study led
to the building of the IAS binary stored-program computer in 1952. The IAS
machine served as the model for IBM's first all electronic stored-program
computer (the 701). The award consists of a gold medal, bronze replica,
certificate and a cash prize.
Relevant Links
A.M. Turing Award
Recipients
IEEE John von Neumann
Medal Recipients
How
Object-Oriented Programming started
"The
Programming Language that changed the World" (Chronicle in Norwegian)
The History of Simula (Article in
Norwegian)
http://www.jot.fm/issues/issue_2002_09/eulogy