John Backus has been named recipient of the 1993 Charles Stark Draper Award

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

|> Retired IBM Fellow John Backus has been named recipient of the
|> 1993 Charles Stark Draper Award, the highest honor of the
|> National Academy of Engineering (NAE).  The award carries a
|> $375,000 stipend and a gold medal.
|>
|> Mr. Backus was cited "for the development of FORTRAN -- FORmula
|> TRANslation -- the first general-purpose, high-level computer
|> language, which ushered in the computer software revolution."
|> The announcement was made yesterday at NAE headquarters in
|> Washington, D.C., by Robert M. White, president of the academy.
|>
|> "Before John Backus, only a handful of specialists could use the
|> computer," said White.  "Today, everyone from preschoolers to
|> postgraduates can use the computer."
|>
|> Mr. Backus, named one of the first IBM Fellows in 1963, spent
|> most of his career at IBM's San Jose Research Laboratory and
|> Almaden Research Center.  He retired October 31, 1991.
|>
|> "This is a richly deserved tribute," said IBM Chairman
|> Louis V. Gerstner Jr.  "John Backus' pioneering work with FORTRAN
|> not only altered the course of computer history, it also helped
|> establish a tradition of technological leadership at IBM --
|> a tradition that carries on to this day."
|>
|> FORTRAN opened up the world of computers to a wide variety of
|> scientists and engineers.  By drastically simplifying computer
|> programming with little or no loss in machine efficiency, FORTRAN
|> enabled non-programmers to make direct use of computers.
|> FORTRAN also had a profound effect on other high-level languages,
|> including many of today's state-of-the-art languages, and is
|> still the most highly used language among engineers today.
|>
|> The award will be presented February 22, 1994, in Washington,
|> D.C., as the culmination to the annual Engineers' Week
|> celebration.
|>
|> The Draper award is issued every two years.  The first was given
|> in 1989 to Robert Noyce and Jack Kilby for the integrated
|> circuit.
|>
|> The second, in 1991, went to Hans Von Ohain and Sir Frank Whittle
|> for the invention of the jet engine.  Mr. Backus is the first
|> single recipient.
|>
|> Draper was a member of the staff of the Massachusetts Institute
|> of Technology and is credited with the invention of the inertial
|> navigational system, which is used in airline flight, missile
|> control, and space exploration.  The prize is endowed by
|> the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Inc., of Cambridge, Mass.