Heinz Zemanek
Heinz Zemanek (b. January 1, 1920) is an Austrian computer pioneer who in 1955 developed the first complete transistorised computer on the European continent. The computer was named Mailüfterl - German for "May breeze" - in reference to Whirlwind, a computer developed at MIT between 1945 and 1951.
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[edit] The Vienna Lab
The IBM Laboratory Vienna, also known as the Vienna Lab, was founded in 1961 as a department of the IBM Laboratory in Böblingen, Germany, with Professor Zemanek as its first manager.[1] Zemanek remained with the Vienna Lab until 1976, when he was appointed an IBM Fellow.[2] He was crucial in the creation of the formal definition of the programming language PL/I.[3]
For several years, Zemanek has been a lecturer at the Vienna University of Technology, which features a lecture hall named in his honor. He is also a long-time member of the International Federation for Information Processing, and was its president from 1971 to 1974.
[edit] Honors
Zemanek received the Eduard Rhein Ring of Honor from the German Eduard Rhein Foundation in 1998.[4][5] The Heinz-Zemanek-Preis, an award for extraordinary accomplishments in the field of computer science, was named after him. He was awarded the Kardinal-Innitzer-Preis award for his lifetime accomplishments in 2003.
[edit] Scouting
Professor Zemanek joined the Boy Scouts in 1932 and served as Scout Leader, International Secretary of Austria from 1946-1949 and International Commissioner of the Pfadfinder Österreichs from 1949-1954.
[edit] Literature
- Kalender und Chronologie. München : Oldenbourg, 1990
- Weltmacht Computer. Esslingen : Bechtle, 1991
- Das geistige Umfeld der Informationstechnik. Berlin : Springer, 1992
- Unser Kalender. Wien : Wiener Kath. Akad., 1995
- Vom Mailüfterl zum Internet. Wien : Picus-Verlag, 2001
- Anekdoten zur Informatik. Innsbruck : Studien-Verlag, 2001
[edit] Notes
- ^ Bandat 1985, p.53
- ^ Zemanek 1985, p.8
- ^ “A Formal Definition of a PL/1 Subset” was produced as TR 25.139 on 20 December 1974. The five authors of the report were Hans Bekič, Dines Bjørner, Wolfgang Henhapl, Cliff B. Jones, and Peter Lucas. See LNCS 177, Bekič and Jones, 1984. p.107-155.
- ^ "The Eduard Rhein Ring of Honor Recipients". Eduard Rhein Foundation. http://www.eduard-rhein-stiftung.de/html/Ehrenring_e.html. Retrieved February 5, 2011.
- ^ "Ring of Honor 1998 - Prof. Dr. Dr.h.c. mult. Heinz Zemanek". Eduard Rhein Foundation. http://www.eduard-rhein-stiftung.de/html/1998/ring98_e.html. Retrieved February 5, 2011.
[edit] References
- Bekič, Hans; Selected papers edited by C. B. Jones (1984). Programming Languages and Their Definition. Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, Tokyo: Springer-Verlag. ISBN 3-540-13378-X. LNCS 177.
- Zemanek, Heinz (1985). "About the architecture of my life". In Neuhold, E.J. and Chroust, G. (editors). Proceedings of the IFIP TC2 Working Conference on The Role of Abstract Models in Information Processing. Amsterdam, New York, Oxford: North-Holland. pp. 1–28. ISBN 0-444-87888-2
- Bandat, K. (1985). "Heinz Zemanek and the IBM Laboratory Vienna". In Neuhold, E.J. and Chroust, G. (editors). Proceedings of the IFIP TC2 Working Conference on The Role of Abstract Models in Information Processing. Amsterdam, New York, Oxford: North-Holland. pp. 53–59. ISBN 0-444-87888-2
[edit] External links
- Heinz Zemanek in the German National Library catalogue (German)
- http://www.zemanek.at/
- http://www.ict.tuwien.ac.at/zemanek/
- Oral history interview with Heinz Zemanek, Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. Zemanek discusses his engineering education and work in radar technology during World War II. Zemanek then focuses on the development of computers in Austria: magnetic drums and magnetic memory, the MAILUFTERL computer, LOGALGOL and other compilers, the University of Vienna where Zemanek worked on his computer, the subsequent sponsorship of the project by International Business Machines Europe, and ALGOL and PL/I language standards development.
- Picture (.jpg)
- life of zemanek
