The Turing Award, in full The ACM A.M. Turing Award, is an annual award given by the Association for Computing Machinery

Association for Computing Machinery

The Association for Computing Machinery is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009...

 (ACM) to "an individual selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the computing community. The contributions should be of lasting and major technical importance to the computer field". The Turing Award is recognized as the "highest distinction in Computer science" and "Nobel Prize of computing".

The award is named after Alan Turing

Alan Turing

Alan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS , was an English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist. He was highly influential in the development of computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of "algorithm" and "computation" with the Turing machine, which played a...

, a British scientist, mathematician

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 and Reader

Reader (academic rank)

The title of Reader in the United Kingdom and some universities in the Commonwealth nations like Australia and New Zealand denotes an appointment for a senior academic with a distinguished international reputation in research or scholarship...

 in Mathematics at The University of Manchester. Turing is "frequently credited for being the Father of theoretical

Theory

The English word theory was derived from a technical term in Ancient Greek philosophy. The word theoria, , meant "a looking at, viewing, beholding", and referring to contemplation or speculation, as opposed to action...

 computer science

Computer science

Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...

 and artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...

". As of 2007, the award is accompanied by a prize of $250,000, with financial support provided by Intel and Google

Google

Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...

.

The first recipient, in 1966, was Alan Perlis

Alan Perlis

Alan Jay Perlis was an American computer scientist known for his pioneering work in programming languages and the first recipient of the Turing Award.-Biography:...

, of Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....

. Frances E. Allen

Frances E. Allen

Frances Elizabeth "Fran" Allen is an American computer scientist and pioneer in the field of optimizing compilers. Her achievements include seminal work in compilers, code optimization, and parallelization...

 of IBM

IBM

International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...

, in 2006, was the first female recipient in the award's forty year history. The 2008 award also went to a woman, Barbara Liskov

Barbara Liskov

Barbara Liskov is a computer scientist. She is currently the Ford Professor of Engineering in the MIT School of Engineering's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department and an Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.-Life and career:She earned her BA in...

.

The award recipients and the fields in which they earned the recognition are listed below. Refer to the individual recipients for more detailed information on their achievements.

Recipients

Year	Recipients	Citation
1966	Alan J. Perlis Alan Perlis Alan Jay Perlis was an American computer scientist known for his pioneering work in programming languages and the first recipient of the Turing Award.-Biography:...	For his influence in the area of advanced programming techniques and compiler Compiler A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...  construction
1967	Maurice V. Wilkes	Professor Wilkes is best known as the builder and designer of the EDSAC EDSAC Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator was an early British computer. The machine, having been inspired by John von Neumann's seminal First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC, was constructed by Maurice Wilkes and his team at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory in England... , the first computer with an internally stored program Computer program A computer program is a sequence of instructions written to perform a specified task with a computer. A computer requires programs to function, typically executing the program's instructions in a central processor. The program has an executable form that the computer can use directly to execute... . Built in 1949, the EDSAC used a mercury delay line memory. He is also known as the author, with Wheeler and Gill, of a volume on "Preparation of Programs for Electronic Digital Computers" in 1951, in which program libraries were effectively introduced
1968	Richard Hamming Richard Hamming Richard Wesley Hamming was an American mathematician whose work had many implications for computer science and telecommunications...	For his work on numerical methods, automatic coding systems, and error-detecting and error-correcting codes
1969	Marvin Minsky Marvin Minsky Marvin Lee Minsky is an American cognitive scientist in the field of artificial intelligence , co-founder of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's AI laboratory, and author of several texts on AI and philosophy.-Biography:...	artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
1970	James H. Wilkinson James H. Wilkinson James Hardy Wilkinson was a prominent figure in the field of numerical analysis, a field at the boundary of applied mathematics and computer science particularly useful to physics and engineering.-Early life:...	For his research in numerical analysis Numerical analysis Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation for the problems of mathematical analysis ....  to facilitate the use of the high-speed digital computer, having received special recognition for his work in computations in linear algebra Linear algebra Linear algebra is a branch of mathematics that studies vector spaces, also called linear spaces, along with linear functions that input one vector and output another. Such functions are called linear maps and can be represented by matrices if a basis is given. Thus matrix theory is often...  and "backward" error analysis
1971	John McCarthy John McCarthy (computer scientist) John McCarthy was an American computer scientist and cognitive scientist. He coined the term "artificial intelligence" , invented the Lisp programming language and was highly influential in the early development of AI.McCarthy also influenced other areas of computing such as time sharing systems...	McCarthy's lecture "The Present State of Research on Artificial Intelligence" is a topic that covers the area in which he has achieved considerable recognition for his work
1972	Edsger W. Dijkstra	Edsger Dijkstra was a principal contributor in the late 1950s to the development of the ALGOL ALGOL ALGOL is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in the mid 1950s which greatly influenced many other languages and became the de facto way algorithms were described in textbooks and academic works for almost the next 30 years... , a high level programming language Programming language A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....  which has become a model of clarity and mathematical rigor. He is one of the principal proponents of the science and art of programming languages in general, and has greatly contributed to our understanding of their structure, representation, and implementation. His fifteen years of publications extend from theoretical articles on graph theory to basic manuals, expository texts, and philosophical contemplations in the field of programming languages
1973	Charles W. Bachman Charles Bachman Charles William "Charlie" Bachman is an American computer scientist, who spent his entire career as an industrial researcher rather than in academia...	For his outstanding contributions to database Database A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...  technology
1974	Donald E. Knuth Donald Knuth Donald Ervin Knuth is a computer scientist and Professor Emeritus at Stanford University.He is the author of the seminal multi-volume work The Art of Computer Programming. Knuth has been called the "father" of the analysis of algorithms...	For his major contributions to the analysis of algorithms and the design of programming languages, and in particular for his contributions to "The Art of Computer Programming The Art of Computer Programming The Art of Computer Programming is a comprehensive monograph written by Donald Knuth that covers many kinds of programming algorithms and their analysis.... " through his well-known books in a continuous series by this title
1975	Allen Newell Allen Newell Allen Newell was a researcher in computer science and cognitive psychology at the RAND corporation and at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, Tepper School of Business, and Department of Psychology...  and   Herbert A. Simon Herbert Simon Herbert Alexander Simon was an American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and psychologist, and professor—most notably at Carnegie Mellon University—whose research ranged across the fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive science, computer science, public administration, economics,...	In joint scientific efforts extending over twenty years, initially in collaboration with J. C. Shaw at the RAND Corporation RAND RAND Corporation is a nonprofit global policy think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces by Douglas Aircraft Company. It is currently financed by the U.S. government and private endowment, corporations including the healthcare industry, universities... , and subsequentially with numerous faculty and student colleagues at Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.... , they have made basic contributions to artificial intelligence, the psychology of human cognition, and list processing
1976	Michael O. Rabin Michael O. Rabin Michael Oser Rabin , is an Israeli computer scientist and a recipient of the Turing Award.- Biography :Rabin was born in 1931 in Breslau, Germany, , the son of a rabbi. In 1935, he emigrated with his family to Mandate Palestine...  and   Dana S. Scott Dana Scott Dana Stewart Scott is the emeritus Hillman University Professor of Computer Science, Philosophy, and Mathematical Logic at Carnegie Mellon University; he is now retired and lives in Berkeley, California...	For their joint paper "Finite Automata and Their Decision Problem," which introduced the idea of nondeterministic machines, which has proved to be an enormously valuable concept. Their (Scott & Rabin) classic paper has been a continuous source of inspiration for subsequent work in this field
1977	John Backus John Backus John Warner Backus was an American computer scientist. He directed the team that invented the first widely used high-level programming language and was the inventor of the Backus-Naur form , the almost universally used notation to define formal language syntax.He also did research in...	For profound, influential, and lasting contributions to the design of practical high-level programming systems, notably through his work on FORTRAN Fortran Fortran is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative programming language that is especially suited to numeric computation and scientific computing... , and for seminal publication of formal procedures for the specification of programming language Programming language A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely.... s
1978	Robert W. Floyd Robert Floyd Robert W Floyd was an eminent computer scientist.His contributions include the design of the Floyd–Warshall algorithm , which efficiently finds all shortest paths in a graph, Floyd's cycle-finding algorithm for detecting cycles in a sequence, and his work on parsing...	For having a clear influence on methodologies for the creation of efficient and reliable software, and for helping to found the following important subfields of computer science Computer science Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems... : the theory of parsing Parsing In computer science and linguistics, parsing, or, more formally, syntactic analysis, is the process of analyzing a text, made of a sequence of tokens , to determine its grammatical structure with respect to a given formal grammar... , the semantics Semantics Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....  of programming languages, automatic program verification, automatic program synthesis Automatic programming In computer science, the term automatic programming identifies a type of computer programming in which some mechanism generates a computer program to allow human programmers to write the code at a higher abstraction level.... , and analysis of algorithms Analysis of algorithms To analyze an algorithm is to determine the amount of resources necessary to execute it. Most algorithms are designed to work with inputs of arbitrary length...
1979	Kenneth E. Iverson Kenneth E. Iverson Kenneth Eugene Iverson was a Canadian computer scientist noted for the development of the APL programming language in 1962. He was honored with the Turing Award in 1979 for his contributions to mathematical notation and programming language theory...	For his pioneering effort in programming languages and mathematical notation resulting in what the computing field now knows as APL, for his contributions to the implementation of interactive systems, to educational uses of APL, and to programming language theory and practice
1980	C. Antony R. Hoare C. A. R. Hoare Sir Charles Antony Richard Hoare , commonly known as Tony Hoare or C. A. R. Hoare, is a British computer scientist best known for the development of Quicksort, one of the world's most widely used sorting algorithms...	For his fundamental contributions to the definition and design of programming languages
1981	Edgar F. Codd Edgar F. Codd Edgar Frank "Ted" Codd was an English computer scientist who, while working for IBM, invented the relational model for database management, the theoretical basis for relational databases...	For his fundamental and continuing contributions to the theory and practice of database management systems, esp. relational database Relational database A relational database is a database that conforms to relational model theory. The software used in a relational database is called a relational database management system . Colloquial use of the term "relational database" may refer to the RDBMS software, or the relational database itself... s
1982	Stephen A. Cook	For his advancement of our understanding of the complexity of computation in a significant and profound way
1983	Ken Thompson and   Dennis M. Ritchie	For their development of generic operating systems theory and specifically for the implementation of the UNIX Unix Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...  operating system
1984	Niklaus Wirth Niklaus Wirth Niklaus Emil Wirth is a Swiss computer scientist, best known for designing several programming languages, including Pascal, and for pioneering several classic topics in software engineering. In 1984 he won the Turing Award for developing a sequence of innovative computer languages.-Biography:Wirth...	For developing a sequence of innovative computer languages, EULER Euler programming language Euler is a programming language created by Niklaus Wirth and Helmut Weber, conceived as an extension and generalization of ALGOL 60. The designers' goal was to create a language:* which was simpler, and yet more flexible, than ALGOL 60... , ALGOL-W, MODULA Modula The Modula programming language is a descendent of the Pascal programming language. It was developed in Switzerland in the late 1970s by Niklaus Wirth, the same person who designed Pascal...  and PASCAL Pascal (programming language) Pascal is an influential imperative and procedural programming language, designed in 1968/9 and published in 1970 by Niklaus Wirth as a small and efficient language intended to encourage good programming practices using structured programming and data structuring.A derivative known as Object Pascal...
1985	Richard M. Karp	For his continuing contributions to the theory of algorithms including the development of efficient algorithms for network flow and other combinatorial optimization problems, the identification of polynomial-time computability with the intuitive notion of algorithmic efficiency, and, most notably, contributions to the theory of NP-completeness NP-complete In computational complexity theory, the complexity class NP-complete is a class of decision problems. A decision problem L is NP-complete if it is in the set of NP problems so that any given solution to the decision problem can be verified in polynomial time, and also in the set of NP-hard...
1986	John Hopcroft John Hopcroft John Edward Hopcroft is an American theoretical computer scientist. His textbooks on theory of computation and data structures are regarded as standards in their fields. He is the IBM Professor of Engineering and Applied Mathematics in Computer Science at Cornell University.He received his...  and   Robert Tarjan Robert Tarjan Robert Endre Tarjan is a renowned American computer scientist. He is the discoverer of several important graph algorithms, including Tarjan's off-line least common ancestors algorithm, and co-inventor of both splay trees and Fibonacci heaps. Tarjan is currently the James S...	For fundamental achievements in the design and analysis of algorithms and data structures
1987	John Cocke John Cocke John Cocke was an American computer scientist recognized for his large contribution to computer architecture and optimizing compiler design. He is considered by many to be "the father of RISC architecture."...	For significant contributions in the design and theory of compilers, the architecture of large systems and the development of reduced instruction set computer Reduced instruction set computer Reduced instruction set computing, or RISC , is a CPU design strategy based on the insight that simplified instructions can provide higher performance if this simplicity enables much faster execution of each instruction. A computer based on this strategy is a reduced instruction set computer... s (RISC)
1988	Ivan Sutherland Ivan Sutherland Ivan Edward Sutherland is an American computer scientist and Internet pioneer. He received the Turing Award from the Association for Computing Machinery in 1988 for the invention of Sketchpad, an early predecessor to the sort of graphical user interface that has become ubiquitous in personal...	For his pioneering and visionary contributions to computer graphics Computer graphics Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware.... , starting with Sketchpad Sketchpad Sketchpad was a revolutionary computer program written by Ivan Sutherland in 1963 in the course of his PhD thesis, for which he received the Turing Award in 1988. It helped change the way people interact with computers... , and continuing after
1989	William (Velvel) Kahan William Kahan William Morton Kahan is a mathematician and computer scientist who received the Turing Award in 1989 for "his fundamental contributions to numerical analysis", and was named an ACM Fellow in 1994....	For his fundamental contributions to numerical analysis Numerical analysis Numerical analysis is the study of algorithms that use numerical approximation for the problems of mathematical analysis .... . One of the foremost experts on floating-point Floating point In computing, floating point describes a method of representing real numbers in a way that can support a wide range of values. Numbers are, in general, represented approximately to a fixed number of significant digits and scaled using an exponent. The base for the scaling is normally 2, 10 or 16...  computations. Kahan has dedicated himself to "making the world safe for numerical computations."
1990	Fernando J. Corbató Fernando J. Corbató Fernando José "Corby" Corbató is a prominent American computer scientist, notable as a pioneer in the development of time-sharing operating systems....	For his pioneering work organizing the concepts and leading the development of the general-purpose, large-scale, time-sharing Time-sharing Time-sharing is the sharing of a computing resource among many users by means of multiprogramming and multi-tasking. Its introduction in the 1960s, and emergence as the prominent model of computing in the 1970s, represents a major technological shift in the history of computing.By allowing a large...  and resource-sharing computer systems, CTSS and Multics Multics Multics was an influential early time-sharing operating system. The project was started in 1964 in Cambridge, Massachusetts... .
1991	Robin Milner Robin Milner Arthur John Robin Gorell Milner FRS FRSE was a prominent British computer scientist.-Life, education and career:...	For three distinct and complete achievements: 1) LCF LCF theorem prover Logic for Computable Functions is an interactive automated theorem prover developed at the universities of Edinburgh and Stanford by Robin Milner and others in 1972. LCF introduced the general-purpose programming language ML to allow users to write theorem-proving tactics. Theorems in the system... , the mechanization of Scott's Logic of Computable Functions, probably the first theoretically based yet practical tool for machine assisted proof construction Automated theorem proving Automated theorem proving or automated deduction, currently the most well-developed subfield of automated reasoning , is the proving of mathematical theorems by a computer program.- Decidability of the problem :... ; 2) ML ML programming language ML is a general-purpose functional programming language developed by Robin Milner and others in the early 1970s at the University of Edinburgh, whose syntax is inspired by ISWIM... , the first language to include polymorphic type inference Type inference Type inference refers to the automatic deduction of the type of an expression in a programming language. If some, but not all, type annotations are already present it is referred to as type reconstruction....  together with a type-safe Type safety In computer science, type safety is the extent to which a programming language discourages or prevents type errors. A type error is erroneous or undesirable program behaviour caused by a discrepancy between differing data types...  exception-handling Exception handling Exception handling is a programming language construct or computer hardware mechanism designed to handle the occurrence of exceptions, special conditions that change the normal flow of program execution....  mechanism; 3) CCS Calculus of Communicating Systems The Calculus of Communicating Systems is a process calculus introduced by Robin Milner around 1980 and the title of a book describing the calculus. Its actions model indivisible communications between exactly two participants. The formal language includes primitives for describing parallel... , a general theory of concurrency Concurrency (computer science) In computer science, concurrency is a property of systems in which several computations are executing simultaneously, and potentially interacting with each other... . In addition, he formulated and strongly advanced full abstraction, the study of the relationship between operational Operational semantics In computer science, operational semantics is a way to give meaning to computer programs in a mathematically rigorous way. Operational semantics are classified into two categories: structural operational semantics formally describe how the individual steps of a computation take place in a...  and denotational Denotational semantics In computer science, denotational semantics is an approach to formalizing the meanings of programming languages by constructing mathematical objects which describe the meanings of expressions from the languages...  semantics Semantics Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata.... .
1992	Butler W. Lampson	For contributions to the development of distributed, personal computing environments and the technology for their implementation: workstation Workstation A workstation is a high-end microcomputer designed for technical or scientific applications. Intended primarily to be used by one person at a time, they are commonly connected to a local area network and run multi-user operating systems... s, networks Computer network A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information.... , operating system Operating system An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system... s, programming systems, displays Computer display A monitor or display is an electronic visual display for computers. The monitor comprises the display device, circuitry, and an enclosure... , security Computer security Computer security is a branch of computer technology known as information security as applied to computers and networks. The objective of computer security includes protection of information and property from theft, corruption, or natural disaster, while allowing the information and property to...  and document publishing Word processor A word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material.... .
1993	Juris Hartmanis Juris Hartmanis Juris Hartmanis is a prominent computer scientist and computational theorist who, with Richard E. Stearns, received the 1993 ACM Turing Award "in recognition of their seminal paper which established the foundations for the field of computational complexity theory".Hartmanis was born in Latvia...  and   Richard E. Stearns	In recognition of their seminal paper which established the foundations for the field of computational complexity theory Computational complexity theory Computational complexity theory is a branch of the theory of computation in theoretical computer science and mathematics that focuses on classifying computational problems according to their inherent difficulty, and relating those classes to each other... .
1994	Edward Feigenbaum Edward Feigenbaum Edward Albert Feigenbaum is a computer scientist working in the field of artificial intelligence. He is often called the "father of expert systems."...  and     Raj Reddy Raj Reddy Dabbala Rajagopal "Raj" Reddy , a Turing Award winner, is one of the early pioneers in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence and has served on the faculty of Stanford and Carnegie Mellon University for over 40 years. He was the founding Director of the Robotics Institute at CMU...	For pioneering the design and construction of large scale artificial intelligence systems, demonstrating the practical importance and potential commercial impact of artificial intelligence technology.
1995	Manuel Blum Manuel Blum Manuel Blum is a computer scientist who received the Turing Award in 1995 "In recognition of his contributions to the foundations of computational complexity theory and its application to cryptography and program checking".-Biography:Blum attended MIT, where he received his bachelor's degree and...	In recognition of his contributions to the foundations of computational complexity theory Computational complexity theory Computational complexity theory is a branch of the theory of computation in theoretical computer science and mathematics that focuses on classifying computational problems according to their inherent difficulty, and relating those classes to each other...  and its application to cryptography Cryptography Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties...  and program checking.
1996	Amir Pnueli	For seminal work introducing temporal logic Temporal logic In logic, the term temporal logic is used to describe any system of rules and symbolism for representing, and reasoning about, propositions qualified in terms of time. In a temporal logic we can then express statements like "I am always hungry", "I will eventually be hungry", or "I will be hungry...  into computing science and for outstanding contributions to program and systems verification Formal verification In the context of hardware and software systems, formal verification is the act of proving or disproving the correctness of intended algorithms underlying a system with respect to a certain formal specification or property, using formal methods of mathematics .- Usage :Formal verification can be... .
1997	Douglas Engelbart Douglas Engelbart Douglas Carl Engelbart is an American inventor, and an early computer and internet pioneer. He is best known for his work on the challenges of human-computer interaction, resulting in the invention of the computer mouse, and the development of hypertext, networked computers, and precursors to GUIs...	For an inspiring vision of the future of interactive computing and the invention of key technologies to help realize this vision.
1998	Jim Gray	For seminal contributions to database Database A database is an organized collection of data for one or more purposes, usually in digital form. The data are typically organized to model relevant aspects of reality , in a way that supports processes requiring this information...  and transaction processing Transaction processing In computer science, transaction processing is information processing that is divided into individual, indivisible operations, called transactions. Each transaction must succeed or fail as a complete unit; it cannot remain in an intermediate state...  research and technical leadership in system implementation.
1999	Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.	For landmark contributions to computer architecture Computer architecture In computer science and engineering, computer architecture is the practical art of selecting and interconnecting hardware components to create computers that meet functional, performance and cost goals and the formal modelling of those systems.... , operating systems, and software engineering Software engineering Software Engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software, and the study of these approaches; that is, the application of engineering to software... .
2000	Andrew Chi-Chih Yao	In recognition of his fundamental contributions to the theory of computation Theory of computation In theoretical computer science, the theory of computation is the branch that deals with whether and how efficiently problems can be solved on a model of computation, using an algorithm... , including the complexity-based theory of pseudorandom number generation Pseudorandom number generator A pseudorandom number generator , also known as a deterministic random bit generator , is an algorithm for generating a sequence of numbers that approximates the properties of random numbers... , cryptography Cryptography Cryptography is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of third parties... , and communication complexity Communication complexity The notion of communication complexity was introduced by Yao in 1979,who investigated the following problem involving two separated parties . Alice receives an n-bit string x and Bob another n-bit string y, and the goal is for one of them to compute a certain function f with the least amount of... .
2001	Ole-Johan Dahl Ole-Johan Dahl Ole-Johan Dahl was a Norwegian computer scientist and is considered to be one of the fathers of Simula and object-oriented programming along with Kristen Nygaard.- Career :...  and  Kristen Nygaard Kristen Nygaard Kristen Nygaard was a Norwegian computer scientist, programming language pioneer and politician. He was born in Oslo and died of a heart attack in 2002.-Object-oriented programming:...	For ideas fundamental to the emergence of object-oriented programming Object-oriented programming Object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm using "objects" – data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs. Programming techniques may include features such as data abstraction,... , through their design of the programming languages Simula I and Simula 67.
2002	Ronald L. Rivest Ron Rivest Ronald Linn Rivest is a cryptographer. He is the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Computer Science at MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and a member of MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory... ,  Adi Shamir Adi Shamir Adi Shamir is an Israeli cryptographer. He is a co-inventor of the RSA algorithm , a co-inventor of the Feige–Fiat–Shamir identification scheme , one of the inventors of differential cryptanalysis and has made numerous contributions to the fields of cryptography and computer...  and  Leonard M. Adleman Leonard Adleman Leonard Max Adleman is an American theoretical computer scientist and professor of computer science and molecular biology at the University of Southern California. He is known for being a co-inventor of the RSA cryptosystem in 1977, and of DNA computing...	For their ingenious contribution for making public-key cryptography Public-key cryptography Public-key cryptography refers to a cryptographic system requiring two separate keys, one to lock or encrypt the plaintext, and one to unlock or decrypt the cyphertext. Neither key will do both functions. One of these keys is published or public and the other is kept private...  useful in practice.
2003	Alan Kay Alan Kay Alan Curtis Kay is an American computer scientist, known for his early pioneering work on object-oriented programming and windowing graphical user interface design, and for coining the phrase, "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."He is the president of the Viewpoints Research...	For pioneering many of the ideas at the root of contemporary object-oriented programming language Object-oriented programming language This is a list of object-oriented programming programming languages.-Languages with object-oriented features:*ABAP*Ada 95*AmigaE*BETA*Blue*Boo*C++*C#*COBOL*Cobra*ColdFusion*Common Lisp*COOL*CorbaScript*Clarion*CLU*Curl*D*Dylan*E*Eiffel... s, leading the team that developed Smalltalk Smalltalk Smalltalk is an object-oriented, dynamically typed, reflective programming language. Smalltalk was created as the language to underpin the "new world" of computing exemplified by "human–computer symbiosis." It was designed and created in part for educational use, more so for constructionist... , and for fundamental contributions to personal computing.
2004	Vinton G. Cerf and  Robert E. Kahn	For pioneering work on internetworking Internetworking Internetworking is the practice of connecting a computer network with other networks through the use of gateways that provide a common method of routing information packets between the networks... , including the design and implementation of the Internet Internet The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide... 's basic communications protocols, TCP/IP, and for inspired leadership in networking.
2005	Peter Naur Peter Naur Peter Naur is a Danish pioneer in computer science and Turing award winner. His last name is the N in the BNF notation , used in the description of the syntax for most programming languages...	For fundamental contributions to programming language Programming language A programming language is an artificial language designed to communicate instructions to a machine, particularly a computer. Programming languages can be used to create programs that control the behavior of a machine and/or to express algorithms precisely....  design and the definition of ALGOL 60 ALGOL ALGOL is a family of imperative computer programming languages originally developed in the mid 1950s which greatly influenced many other languages and became the de facto way algorithms were described in textbooks and academic works for almost the next 30 years... , to compiler Compiler A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...  design, and to the art and practice of computer programming.
2006	Frances E. Allen	For pioneering contributions to the theory and practice of optimizing compiler techniques that laid the foundation for modern optimizing compilers and automatic parallel execution.
2007	Edmund M. Clarke Edmund M. Clarke Edmund Melson Clarke, Jr. is a computer scientist and academic noted for developingmodel checking, a method for formally verifying hardware and software designs.... ,  E. Allen Emerson E. Allen Emerson Ernest Allen Emerson is a computer scientist and endowed professor at the University of Texas, Austin, USA.He won the 2007 A.M. Turing Award along with Edmund M...  and   Joseph Sifakis Joseph Sifakis Joseph Sifakis is a Greek-French computer scientist, laureate of the 2007 Turing Award, along with Edmund M. Clarke and E. Allen Emerson, for his work on model checking....	For [their roles] in developing Model-Checking Model checking In computer science, model checking refers to the following problem:Given a model of a system, test automatically whether this model meets a given specification....  into a highly effective verification technology, widely adopted in the hardware and software industries.
2008	Barbara Liskov Barbara Liskov Barbara Liskov is a computer scientist. She is currently the Ford Professor of Engineering in the MIT School of Engineering's Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department and an Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.-Life and career:She earned her BA in...	For contributions to practical and theoretical foundations of programming language and system design, especially related to data abstraction, fault tolerance, and distributed computing.
2009	Charles P. Thacker Charles P. Thacker Charles P. Thacker is an American pioneer computer designer.-Biography:Thacker was born in Pasadena, California on February 26, 1943.He received his B.S...	For his pioneering design and realization of the Alto, the first modern personal computer, and in addition for his contributions to the Ethernet and the Tablet PC.
2010	Leslie G. Valiant	For transformative contributions to the theory of computation Theory of computation In theoretical computer science, the theory of computation is the branch that deals with whether and how efficiently problems can be solved on a model of computation, using an algorithm... , including the theory of probably approximately correct (PAC Probably approximately correct learning In computational learning theory, probably approximately correct learning is a framework for mathematical analysis of machine learning. It was proposed in 1984 by Leslie Valiant.... ) learning, the complexity of enumeration and of algebraic computation, and the theory of parallel and distributed computing.

External links

• ACM List of Turing Laureates
• Bibliography of Turing Award lectures (through 2000)