Alan J. Perlis is best known for his innovative work in computer programming languages and compilers. Perlis was a keen educator and helped set up several computer departments at universities throughout the United States.
Alan J. Perlis was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1922. After a local education Perlis received a B.S. in chemistry from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now the Carnegie Melon University) in 1943. Immediately upon completing his studies Perlis joined the war effort, serving in the United States Army Air Force until 1945. Upon cessation of hostilities Perlis continued his studies and he was awarded an M.S. in 1949 and a Ph.D. in 1950. Both of these degrees were in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Between 1948 and 1949, while at MIT, Perlis was employed as an adviser on Project Whirlwind between. (Project Whirlwind was originally conceived as an analog computer flight simulator, but with the advent of ENIAC and EDVAC it was changed to be a digital device.) Perlis returned to it in 1952 after a period at the Ballistic Research Laboratories, Aberdeen Proving Ground, where he worked at the Multi Machine Computing Laboratory. At the end of 1952 Perlis became an assistant professor of mathematics at Purdue University as well as the director of the Digital Computer Center Laboratory, which he founded. During this time Perlis worked extensively on the development of the Internal Translator (IT) compiler. In 1956 Perlis moved to become an assistant professor of mathematics at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Melon University), and while there he founded the Computation Center of which he was made the first director. Perlis became chair of the Department of Mathematics in 1960. During his time at Carnegie Perlis completed his development of the IT compiler. In 1957 Perlis became the chair of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) committee for developing a common universal programming language. As part of this work the team developed Algol58 in 1958.
This was subsequently modified to produce Algol60, and Perlis was involved in this and subsequent versions of the Algol language. The development of both Algol58 and Algol60 led to other languages, as well as establishing standards in the development of programming languages. In 1965 Perlis was given a chair in the computer science department at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, a department which he had proposed. Perlis retained this position until 1971. At the same time he was also the chairman of the department. In 1966 Perlis received the ACM's first Turing Award. In 1971 Perlis was made Eugene Higgins Professor of Computer Science at Yale and was chair of the computer science department between 1976 and 1980. During this period he spent a year, 1977 to 1978, at the California Institute of Technology as the Gordon and Betty Moore Professor of Computer Science. Throughout his time at Yale Perlis devoted part of his research studies to the programming language APL (A Programming Language). When Perlis died in 1990 he was still a professor of computer science at Yale.
Perlis had a long association with the ACM. In 1958 he founded their journal Communications of the ACM, of which he was also the first editor until 1962. From 1962 to 1964 he was president of the ACM and in 1966 he received the society's first Turing Award, for which his citation reads, "For his influence in the area of advanced programming techniques and compiler construction." In 1973 Perlis was elected as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and in 1976 he became a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Throughout his life Perlis published widely. He believed strongly in the educational thrust of his role and felt that publications would help in the spread of his work. As well as articles for numerous research journals Perlis published several text books on programming, compilers, and computer languages. In 1984 Perlis received the AFIPS Education Award. In 1985 Perlis was given the IEEE Computer Pioneer Award for significant contributions to concepts and developments in the electronic computer field, which have clearly advanced the state of the art in computing. Alan J. Perlis died in 1990, aged 67. In his memory Yale now holds an annual Alan J. Perlis Symposium, and Carnegie Melon University established the Alan J. Perlis Chair of Computer Science in 1991.
This is the complete article, containing 723 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
