Howard Aiken

Date of Birth: March 8, 1900

Zodiac Sign: Pisces

Date of Death: March 14, 1973

Biography

Howard Hathaway Aiken was an American physicist and a pioneer in the field of computer science. Born on March 8, 1900, in Hoboken, New Jersey, Aiken is best known for his development of the Harvard Mark I, one of the first large-scale automatic digital computers. Aiken’s early education was marred by financial difficulties, but he eventually managed to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison and later completed his Ph.D. in physics at Harvard University in 1939. During his time at Harvard, Aiken proposed the idea of an automatic calculating machine, which led to a collaboration with IBM. This collaboration resulted in the creation of the Harvard Mark I, also known as the IBM Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator (ASCC), which was completed in 1944. The Mark I was used by the U.S. Navy during World War II for ballistic calculations and other computations. After the war, Aiken continued his work in computer science and became a professor at Harvard. He was instrumental in the development of subsequent computers, including the Mark II, Mark III, and Mark IV. Aiken’s contributions to the field were recognized with numerous awards, including the Harry H. Goode Memorial Award and the IEEE Edison Medal. Aiken passed away on March 14, 1973, in St. Louis, Missouri, leaving behind a legacy that profoundly influenced the evolution of modern computing.

5 Interesting Facts about Howard Aiken

1. Howard Aiken initially studied electrical engineering before switching to physics.

2. The Harvard Mark I was 51 feet long, weighed five tons, and contained approximately 750,000 components.

3. The Mark I could perform three additions or subtractions per second and a multiplication in about six seconds.

4. Aiken served in the U.S. Navy during World War I before returning to complete his education.

5. He was awarded the prestigious Computer Pioneer Award by the IEEE Computer Society in 1980 posthumously.

5 Most Interesting Quotes from Howard Aiken

1. “Don’t worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you’ll have to ram them down people’s throats.”

2. “The manual operation of mathematical computations was a bottleneck in scientific research.”

3. “A large-scale digital calculating machine was necessary for future advances in science and technology.”

4. “The computer is incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid. Man is unbelievably slow, inaccurate, and brilliant. The marriage of the two is a force beyond calculation.”

5. “In our society, scientific knowledge and technological innovation are key drivers of social and economic progress.”

Highest Net Worth Achieved

There are no public records of Howard Aiken’s net worth, as he lived during a time when scientists were not typically wealthy from their inventions and contributions.