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Alan Perlis

Programming-language pioneer and the first winner of the Turing Award

1 April 1922 – 7 February 1990 United States Verified by our editors
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Lived
67 yrs
1922 – 1990
Works listed
2
Programming language, Essay
Honours
2
Most recent 1985
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5
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Alan Perlis was an American computer scientist who helped design the ALGOL programming language and built one of the first computer science departments, at Carnegie Mellon University. In 1966 he became the first person to receive the Turing Award, often called the Nobel Prize of computing.

Biography

Early life and education

Perlis grew up in Pittsburgh, studied chemistry at the Carnegie Institute of Technology and, after serving as a weather officer in the US Army Air Forces during the Second World War, earned a doctorate in mathematics at MIT in 1950. He was drawn into computing while working on early machines such as MIT’s Whirlwind.

Building a discipline

At Purdue and then Carnegie Tech he ran computing centres and wrote compilers. He was the first head of Carnegie Mellon’s computer science department, founded in 1965, and helped define what a university course in computer science should contain at a time when the subject barely existed.

ALGOL and the Turing Award

Perlis was a member of the international committee that designed ALGOL 58 and ALGOL 60, languages whose clear block structure influenced Pascal, C and most later languages. He also served as president of the Association for Computing Machinery from 1962 to 1964. The ACM gave him the first A. M. Turing Award in 1966 for his work on advanced programming techniques and compilers.

Later years

He moved to Yale in 1971, where he chaired computer science. His 1982 “Epigrams on Programming”, short witty sayings about software, are still widely quoted by programmers. He died in New Haven in 1990.

Timeline

  1. 1922

    Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

  2. 1950

    PhD in mathematics from MIT

  3. 1958

    Works on the ALGOL 58 report

  4. 1962

    Elected president of the ACM

  5. 1965

    First head of computer science at Carnegie Mellon

  6. 1966

    Receives the first Turing Award

  7. 1971

    Joins Yale University

  8. 1982

    Publishes “Epigrams on Programming”

  9. 1990

    Died, aged 67

Notable works

  • 1960

    ALGOL 60 Programming language

    Co-designed by an international committee including Perlis.

  • 1982

    Epigrams on Programming Essay

    A collection of 130 aphorisms about software.

Awards and honours

  • Turing Award

    1966 · The first ever awarded.

  • Computer Pioneer Award

    1985

Did you know?

  1. 1

    He first studied chemistry, not mathematics.

  2. 2

    His epigram “A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming is not worth knowing” is a favourite among programmers.

  3. 3

    Carnegie Mellon’s computer science department, which he led first, became one of the best known in the world.

Connections

Related people

Also born on 1 April

Frequently asked

Who is Alan Perlis?

Alan Perlis was an American computer scientist who helped design the ALGOL programming language and built one of the first computer science departments, at Carnegie Mellon University. In 1966 he became the first person to receive the Turing Award, often called the Nobel Prize of computing.

When did Alan Perlis die?

Alan Perlis died on 7 February 1990 at the age of 67.

Where is Alan Perlis from?

Alan Perlis was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.

What is Alan Perlis known for?

Alan Perlis is best known for ALGOL; founding computer science at Carnegie Mellon; first Turing Award (1966); his “Epigrams on Programming”.

What awards has Alan Perlis received?

Notable honours include Turing Award (1966), Computer Pioneer Award (1985).

References

  1. Alan Perlis — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  2. Alan Perlis — Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  3. Alan Perlis — Goodreads author page. Goodreads. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  4. Alan Perlis (Q62861) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.

Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Alan Perlis”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. That text is available under the same licence. Learn more

External links

Wikipedia
Filed under ALGOLProgramming languagesTuring Award Computer ScientistProfessor

About this profile

Cite this page

“Alan Perlis.” TrackFame, last updated 5 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/alan-perlis

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