Edsger Wybe Dijkstra was one of the most influential members of computing science’s founding generation. He made fundamental contributions in algorithm design, program design, programming languages, operating systems, distributed processing, formal specification and verification, design of mathematical arguments, and much more.
Dijkstra was intensely interested in teaching, and in the relationships between academic computing science and the software industry. During his forty-plus years as a computer scientist, which included positions in both academia and industry, Dijkstra’s contributions brought him many prizes and awards, including computing science’s highest honor, the ACM Turing Award.