Frederick Phillips Brooks Jr was an American Computer architect, software engineer and computer scientist. He was best known for being the lead designer of computers that cemented IBM dominance. In 1999 he was awarded with the A.M Turing Award which is the highest honor in computer science for his landmark contributions to computer architecture, operating system and software engineering.
Brooks was born in Durham, North Carolina. He went to Duke University for his Bachelor of Science degree in ... moreFrederick Phillips Brooks Jr was an American Computer architect, software engineer and computer scientist. He was best known for being the lead designer of computers that cemented IBM dominance. In 1999 he was awarded with the A.M Turing Award which is the highest honor in computer science for his landmark contributions to computer architecture, operating system and software engineering.
Brooks was born in Durham, North Carolina. He went to Duke University for his Bachelor of Science degree in physics graduating in 1953 and subsequently went to Harvard for his Ph.D in computer science graduating in 1956. He became a teaching assistant at Harvard and later that year he joined IBM where he did revolutionary work. It was during this time that he coined the term computer architecture and authored and coauthored many books.
In 1964 Brooks went to University of North Carolina and founded the university's computer science department chairing it for twenty years. He continued on with his research in visual environments up to 2013. He served on a number of boards like the Defense Science board and won over 25 awards throughout his career.
