Edsger Dijkstra was a Dutch computer scientist whose work helped establish computer programming as a rigorous scientific discipline rather than an informal craft. He devised Dijkstra's algorithm in 1956, a method for finding the shortest path between nodes in a graph that remains a foundational algorithm in computer science and is still widely used in routing and network applications. Dijkstra was also an influential and often blunt advocate for structured programming, arguing in his widely read 1968 letter Go To Statement Considered Harmful that unrestricted jump statements made programs difficult to reason about and should be avoided in favor of clearer control structures. He held academic positions at the Eindhoven University of Technology and later the University of Texas at Austin, wrote extensively on formal methods for proving program correctness, and received the Turing Award in 1972 for his fundamental contributions to the development of programming languages.
Facts
Birth YearSourced to the subject's own account Birth DateSourced to the subject's own account Death DateSourced to the subject's own account Death YearSourced to the subject's own account FieldSourced to the subject's own account Death PlaceSourced to the subject's own account NationalitySourced to the subject's own account Notable WorkSourced to the subject's own accountThe shortest path algorithm (widely known as the Dijkstra algorithm), formulated in 1956, and the first ALGOL 60 compiler, built in 1960 1 BirthplaceSourced to the subject's own account Connections
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Netherlands, nationality there.
Sources
1. Edsger W. Dijkstra (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead paragraph, sentence 1 (birth date)
Edsger Wybe Dijkstra ... was a Dutch computer scientist, programmer, mathematician, and science essayist.
Lead paragraph, sentence 1 (birth year)
Edsger Wybe Dijkstra ... was a Dutch computer scientist, programmer, mathematician, and science essayist.
Last years section, sentence 2 (death date)
Dijkstra died on 6 August 2002 after a long struggle with cancer.
Last years section, sentence 2 (death year)
Dijkstra died on 6 August 2002 after a long struggle with cancer.
Early years section, sentence 1
Dijkstra was born in Rotterdam.
Lead paragraph, sentence 3
He and his wife returned from Austin to his original house in Nuenen, where he died on 6 August 2002 after a long struggle with cancer.
Lead paragraph, sentence 1 (nationality)
Edsger Wybe Dijkstra ... was a Dutch computer scientist, programmer, mathematician, and science essayist.
Lead paragraph, sentence 1 (field)
Edsger Wybe Dijkstra ... was a Dutch computer scientist, programmer, mathematician, and science essayist.
Life and works section, paragraph 2
He formulated and solved the shortest path problem in 1956, and in 1960 developed the first compiler for the programming language ALGOL 60 in conjunction with colleague Jaap A. Zonneveld.
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