John Backus
1924–2007 (age 83)
computer scientist
Biography
John Backus revolutionized computing by leading the IBM team that created Fortran, one of the first high-level programming languages that helped make scientific computation accessible to countless engineers and researchers. His work introduced programming paradigms that balanced mathematical rigor with practical implementation.
He also developed the Backus-Naur Form for describing programming language syntax, earned a Turing Award, and encouraged a generation of computer scientists to think critically about language design; he was honored with a memorial at the San Francisco Columbarium following his death in 2007.