William Allan Wulf was an American computer scientist notable for his work in programming languages, compilers and helped to adapt an early Pentagon communications web into the network that eventually grew into the internet. Wulf earned a bachelor’s degree in physics and a Master’s in Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He was one of the first people to receive a Ph.D. in Computer Science and made a career in computer science when the field barely existed. He j... moreWilliam Allan Wulf was an American computer scientist notable for his work in programming languages, compilers and helped to adapt an early Pentagon communications web into the network that eventually grew into the internet. Wulf earned a bachelor’s degree in physics and a Master’s in Electrical Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He was one of the first people to receive a Ph.D. in Computer Science and made a career in computer science when the field barely existed. He joined the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, a center of computer science research after completing his Ph.D. In 1981 he and his wife who was also a Computer Science professor at Carnegie Mellon, founded Tartan Laboratories. By the time they sold the company, it had grown to become one of the high-tech companies in the country. He served as president of the National Academy of Engineering from 1996 to 2007. He retired at the University of Virginia by resigning in 2012 after working there from 1968 and with accomplishments in research of computer architecture, computer security, and hardware-software design. He was honored by every major professional society in computer science, as well as the American Philosophical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
