Heinz Zemanek
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| Heinz Zemanek | |
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Heinz Zemanek in 2007
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| Born | 1 January 1920 Vienna, Austria |
| Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Vienna, Austria |
| Fields | Computer Scientist |
| Institutions | Vienna University of Technology, IBM |
| Alma mater | Vienna University of Technology |
| Known for | Mailüfterl, PL/I |
| Notable awards | Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class (2005) |
Heinz Zemanek (1 January 1920 – 16 July 2014) was 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.
Contents
Life
Heinz Zemanek went to a secondary school in Vienna and earned his Matura in 1937. He then started to study at the University of Vienna. In 1940, Zemanek was drafted into the Wehrmacht, where he served in a "communication unit" and also as a teacher in an Intelligence Service School. Returning to studying radar technology he earned his Diplom in 1944 with the help of University of Stuttgart professor Richard Feldtkeller (1901–1981).
After the war Zemanek worked as an assistant at the university and earned his PhD in 1951 about timesharing methods in multiplex telegraphy. In 1952 he completed the URR1 (Universal Relais Rechner 1, i.e., Universal Relay Computer 1). He died at the age of 94 on 16 July 2014.[1][2]
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.[3] Zemanek remained with the Vienna Lab until 1976, when he was appointed an IBM Fellow.[4] He was crucial in the creation of the formal definition of the programming language PL/I.[5]
For several years, Zemanek had been a lecturer at the Vienna University of Technology, which features a lecture hall named in his honor. He was also a long-time member of the International Federation for Information Processing, and was its president from 1971 to 1974.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
Honours and awards
- Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class (2005)[6]
- Gold Decoration for Services to the City of Vienna
- Joseph Johann Ritter von Prechtl Medal from the Technical University of Vienna
- Leonardo da Vinci Medal of the European Society for the Education of Engineers
- Wilhelm Exner Medal (1972).[7]
- Rudolf Kompfner Medal of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology at the Technical University of Vienna (2010)
- Member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts[8]
- Hero of Uzbekistan[citation needed]
- Eduard Rhein Ring of Honor (Eduard Rhein Foundation, 1998)[9][10]
- Heinz-Zemanek-Preis, an award for extraordinary accomplishments in the field of computer science, was named for him
- Kardinal-Innitzer-Preis (2003) – for his lifetime accomplishments
Literature
- Bekanntes & Unbekanntes aus der Kalenderwissenschaft. Munich: Oldenbourg, 1978
- Kalender und Chronologie. Munich: Oldenbourg, 1990
- Weltmacht Computer. Esslingen: Bechtle, 1991
- Das geistige Umfeld der Informationstechnik. Berlin: Springer, 1992
- Unser Kalender. Vienna: Wiener Kath. Akad., 1995
- Vom Mailüfterl zum Internet. Vienna: Picus-Verlag, 2001
- Anekdoten zur Informatik. Innsbruck: Studien-Verlag, 2001
Notes
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Editor, ÖGV. (2015). Wilhelm Exner Medal. Austrian Trade Association. ÖGV. Austria.
- ↑ http://www.euro-acad.eu/members?filter=z&page=2
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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References
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External links
- Heinz Zemanek in the German National Library catalogue
- Heinz Zemanek website
- Heinz Zemanek university home page
- 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
- Pages with broken file links
- Articles with unsourced statements from July 2014
- Articles with unsourced statements from November 2012
- 1920 births
- 2014 deaths
- People from Vienna
- People associated with Scouting
- Scouting and Guiding in Austria
- University of Vienna alumni
- Austrian computer scientists
- Vienna University of Technology faculty
- Programming language designers
- IBM Fellows
- Recipients of the Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class
- Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts
