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Michael Dertouzos

Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Field	Value
name	Michael Leonidas Dertouzos
native_name	Μιχαήλ Λεωνίδας Δερτούζος
native_name_lang	el
birth_date
birth_place	Athens, Greece
death_date
death_place	Boston, United States
occupation	Academic

Michael Leonidas Dertouzos (; November 5, 1936 – August 27, 2001) was a professor in the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Director of the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) from 1974 to 2001.

Dertouzos predicted the expansion of computer use very early, and was one of the pioneers in many areas of technology. These included his contributions to the Web particularly through his visionary approach to ubiquitous computing.

Early life

Dertouzos was born in Athens, Greece. His father was an admiral in the Greek navy and the young Dertouzos often accompanied him aboard destroyers and submarines. This experience cultivated his interest in technology so that he learned Morse code, shipboard machinery, and mathematics at an early age. When he was 16, he came across Claude Shannon's work on information theory and MIT's attempt to build a mechanical mouse robot; these were said to have driven him to study in the university.

Dertouzos went to high school at Athens College. He came to the United States to study after the end of World War II and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study electrical engineering. Dertouzos completed his bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Arkansas in 1957 and 1959. He earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from MIT in 1964.

Career

After graduating, he immediately joined the faculty of MIT, where he stayed for the rest of his career. During Dertouzos's term, LCS innovated in a variety of areas, including RSA encryption, the spreadsheet, the NuBus, the X Window System, and the Internet. Dertouzos was instrumental in creating the World Wide Web Consortium and bringing it to MIT. He was a firm supporter of the GNU Project, Richard Stallman, and the FSF, and their continued presence at MIT. He was also the sponsor of Project Oxygen at MIT, which aimed to develop "pervasive, human-centered computing through a combination of specific user and system technologies".

In 1968, he co-founded Computek, Inc., a manufacturer of graphics and intelligent terminals, with Marvin C. Lewis and Dr. Huber Graham.

He died on August 27 2001 at Massachusetts General Hospital at the age of 64. He is buried at the First Cemetery of Athens.

Honours

On November 5, 2018, Google recognized him with a doodle.

Bibliography

Dertouzos, The Unfinished Revolution: Human-Centered Computers and What They Can Do For Us, 2001, .
Dertouzos, What Will Be: How the New World of Information Will Change Our Lives, 1997, .
"Communications, Computers and Networks", in Scientific American Special Issue on Communications, Computers, and Networks, September, 1991
(co-author), Made in America: Regaining the Productive Edge, 1989, .

References

(September 5, 2001). "MIT colleagues attend Dertouzos funeral in Greece".
(2008). "Connections: Patterns of Discovery". Wiley-Interscience.
Henderson, Harry. (2003). "A to Z of Computer Scientists". Facts on File, Inc..
National Academy of Engineering. (2011). "Memorial Tributes, Volume 14". National Academies Press.
Garland, Stephen J.. "MIT Project Oxygen: Overview".
"Michael Dertouzos' 82nd Birthday".

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

computer-systems-researchers greek-computer-scientists american-computer-scientists greek-technology-writers american-technology-writers university-of-arkansas-alumni mit-school-of-engineering-alumni mit-school-of-engineering-faculty greek-emigrants-to-the-united-states 1936-births 2001-deaths engineers-from-athens 20th-century-american-people-of-greek-descent athens-college-alumni

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