On January 1, 2024, Swiss computer scientist Niklaus Wirth passed away at his home. According to a statement from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), his funeral is expected to take place on January 11 in Zurich, Germany.
Niklaus Wirth’s influence on the computing world was enormous. He always focused on simplicity, clarity and efficiency in programming languages, leaving a mark in the design and development of modern software.
The principles he advocated influenced the design of later languages, as well as the development of structured programming techniques.
Niklaus Wirth was the recipient of the Turing Award, one of the most prestigious awards in computer science, often considered the Nobel Prize for the field. The scientist was awarded the prize in 1984 for developing the innovative computer languages Euler, Algol-W, Modula and Pascal.
For two decades, from the early 1980s to the late 1990s, scientist Niklaus Wirth worked at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. Niklaus Wirth also collaborated with leading universities such as Stanford and Zurich.
Developed by Niklaus Wirth, Pascal has been globally recognized as one of the most popular commercial programming languages for a long time. The Delphi dialect of the Object Pascal programming language was also created on its basis.
In addition, the Swiss scientist was also known for creating the Ada programming language for Pentagon-specific embedded systems.
In June 2007, Niklaus Wirth was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Russian Academy of Sciences.
Today, Niklaus Wirth’s contributions continue to inspire computer scientists and software engineers around the world. His achievements will form the foundation of computing history and his vision will continue to be inherited by future generations.
(according to RB)
