Niklaus Wirth
Born 1934 · Age 91
Swiss computer scientist, designer of Pascal and several other programming languages, Turing Award winner (1984), long-time professor at ETH Zürich and pioneer in programming languages and software engineering.
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Life & Career Timeline
Born in Winterthur, Switzerland
Niklaus Emil Wirth was born to Hedwig (née Keller) and Walter Wirth in Winterthur.
Childhood: built model planes (formative experience)
As a child he built and flew model planes; he later cited limited budget and need for simplicity as influential to his engineering philosophy.
Started studies in electronic engineering at ETH Zürich
Began studying electronic engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zürich); studied there 1954–1958.
Graduated B.S. (Electronics Engineering) from ETH Zürich
Completed undergraduate degree (Bachelor of Science) in electronic engineering at ETH Zürich (graduation year commonly cited as 1958).
Divorce from first marriage (personal milestone)
Wirth divorced his first wife (referred to as 'Nani' in sources) in 1959; he later had three children.
Earned M.Sc. from Université Laval
Completed Master of Science (M.Sc.) at Université Laval in Quebec, Canada.
Awarded Ph.D. (EECS) from UC Berkeley
Received Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science; thesis 'A Generalization of Algol'; doctoral advisor Harry Huskey (and Edward Feigenbaum listed).
Joined Stanford University as Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Became an assistant professor on the Stanford faculty (served 1963–1967).
Designed the Euler programming language
Wirth was chief designer of Euler (1965), an early language influenced by Algol and his dissertation work.
Designed PL360
Created PL360 (1966), a systems programming language for the IBM System/360 family, notable for separating syntax and semantics.
Co-designed ALGOL W (1966)
Worked with Tony Hoare to develop ALGOL W, a pragmatic extension influenced by Algol-60 after leaving the IFIP Algol 68 process.
Assistant Professor, University of Zürich
Returned to Switzerland and served as assistant professor at the University of Zürich (circa 1967–1968).
Resigned from IFIP Algol working group
Resigned from the international Algol standards group after his extension proposal was rejected in favor of the complex Algol 68 design.
Appointed Professor of Informatics at ETH Zürich
Accepted a professorship in informatics at ETH Zürich, where he spent the bulk of his career (1968–1999).
Designed Pascal
Developed the Pascal programming language (1970), a simple, efficient language intended for teaching and reliable system building.
Pascal adopted for teaching at ETH
ETH Zürich adopted Pascal for teaching in 1971; Pascal quickly spread to other universities.
Published 'Program Development by Stepwise Refinement' (CACM)
April 1971 Communications of the ACM article outlining top-down stepwise refinement in program design; considered a classic in software engineering.
Published 'Systematic Programming: An Introduction' (book)
Released a textbook on programming methodology tailored to mathematicians and students of algorithms.
Published 'Pascal User Manual and Report' (with Kathleen Jensen)
The Pascal report/manual (second edition referenced) served as a basis for many Pascal implementations globally.
Published 'Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs'
Released the influential book linking algorithms and data structures; later revised as 'Algorithms & Data Structures' in 1986 and 2004.
Designed Modula (1975)
Created Modula, a language extending Pascal with modularity and concurrency concepts (led to Modula-2).
Sabbatical at Xerox PARC (first)
Took a one-year sabbatical at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (1976–1977), exposure that inspired workstation projects at ETH.
Honorary doctorate: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) (1978)
Received honorary doctorate from EPFL (listed among ACM honors).
Honorary doctorate: University of York (1978)
Received an honorary doctorate from the University of York (one of multiple honorary degrees listed).
Designed Modula-2 (1978)
Released Modula-2, a language supporting modules and system programming; used in ETH workstation projects.
Lilith workstation operational at ETH (milestone)
The Lilith graphical workstation project (led by Wirth) produced working systems by 1980; included Medos OS and Modula-2 support.
Led formation of independent Computer Science department at ETH (milestone)
Instrumental in creating what became ETH Zürich's independent computer science department, established around 1981; later served as head much of the 1980s.
Chair of ETH Computer Science Department (1982–1984)
Served as chair/head of ETH's computer science department from 1982 to 1984 (first term).
Medos-2 operating system (Lilith) documented/used
Medos-2, a Modula-2 oriented OS for the Lilith workstation, is associated with Wirth's Lilith project and student theses.
Received IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award
Awarded the IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award (1983) recognizing contributions to the information processing field.
Sabbatical at Xerox PARC (second)
Took a second one-year sabbatical at Xerox PARC (1984–1985).
ACM A. M. Turing Award (1984)
Received the ACM Turing Award for 'developing a sequence of innovative computer languages' (Euler, Algol‑W, Pascal, Modula...).
Ceres workstation development (mid-1980s)
Led or contributed to development of the Ceres workstation and associated research in the mid-1980s that culminated in Oberon work.
Object Pascal and related developments (mid-1980s)
Work associated with object-oriented extensions (Object Pascal) and continued evolution of Pascal-family languages.
Published 1986 revision 'Algorithms & Data Structures'
Major revision of his 1975 textbook; language examples updated to Modula-2.
Designed Oberon and Oberon operating system (1987)
Released the Oberon language and the Oberon operating system (targeted at the Ceres workstation); focused on simplicity and integration.
Honorary doctorate: Université Laval (1987)
Received an honorary doctorate from Université Laval (his M.Sc. alma mater).
Second term as Chair of ETH Computer Science Department (1988–1990)
Served a second term as head/chair of the department during 1988–1990.
Received IEEE Computer Society Computer Pioneer Award / IBM Europe Prize (late 1980s)
Received IEEE Computer Society honors and an IBM Europe Science & Technology recognition in the late 1980s (sources list 1988/1989).
Received Marcel Benoist Prize (1989)
Awarded the prestigious Swiss Marcel Benoist Prize in recognition of scientific contributions.
Oberon-2 language (1991)
Released Oberon-2 (1991), a refinement of Oberon adding object-oriented features while preserving simplicity.
Published 'Project Oberon' and 'Programming in Oberon' (1992)
With Jürg Gutknecht published full documentation of the Oberon OS and compiler; a separate programming guide (with Martin Reiser) appeared.
Honorary doctorate: Johannes Kepler University Linz (1978 listed; Linz doctorate 1993 per ACM list)
One of several honorary doctorates listed in ACM biographical notes (multiple dates across institutions).
Elected ACM Fellow / Member of US National Academy of Engineering (1994)
Elected a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery and recognized by the US National Academy of Engineering / foreign associate status.
Developed Lola digital hardware design & simulation system
Created Lola (1995), a hardware description language and simulation environment for digital circuit design.
Popularized 'Wirth's law' in 'A Plea for Lean Software'
Published the paper 'A Plea for Lean Software' (Feb 1995) which popularized Wirth's law: 'Software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware becomes faster.'
Honorary doctorate: University of Novosibirsk (1996)
Received an honorary doctorate from Novosibirsk (ACM list of honorary degrees).
Honorary doctorate: The Open University (1997)
Received an honorary doctorate from The Open University (listed among honors).
Honorary doctorate: University of Pretoria (1998)
Received one of several honorary doctorates (ACM notes list multiple institutions and years).
Honorary doctorate: Masaryk University, Brno (1999)
Received an honorary doctorate from Masaryk University (listed among honors).
Received ACM SIGSOFT Outstanding Research Award
Awarded the SIGSOFT Outstanding Research Award in Software Engineering (1999).
Retired from ETH Zürich
Retired from his professorship at ETH Zürich in 1999 (had been instrumental in building ETH's computer science department).
Received Eduard-Rhein Technology Prize (2002)
Recognized with further honors in the early 2000s (Eduard-Rhein Prize listed among awards).
Published 2004 revision of 'Algorithms & Data Structures' (Oberon examples)
Major revision updating examples to Oberon; continued to publish and maintain pedagogical texts.
Made Fellow of the Computer History Museum (2004)
Named Fellow of the Computer History Museum 'for seminal work in programming languages and algorithms'.
Honorary doctorates: Saint Petersburg & Ekaterinburg (2005)
Received additional honorary doctorates (two Russian institutions listed for 2005 in ACM notes).
Honorary doctorate: Saint Petersburg State University of IT, Mechanics & Optics (2005)
One of the two Russian honorary doctorates listed for 2005.
Honorary doctorate: State University of Ekaterinburg (2005)
Another Russian honorary doctorate listed for 2005 in ACM notes.
Released Oberon-07
Published the Oberon-07 language report (2007), a modernized variant of Oberon preserving simplicity.
Project Oberon 2013 / reimplementation on FPGA (follow-up work)
Project Oberon materials were adapted for reimplementation on FPGA hardware in later editions and community projects.
Died in Zürich
Niklaus Wirth died on New Year's Day 2024 in Zürich at age 89.
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