John Backus Quotes

John Warner Backus was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He was an American computer scientist and mathematician. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1949, and a master's degree in 1950, both in mathematics from Columbia University. He directed the team that invented and implemented FORTRAN, the first widely used high-level programming language, and was the inventor of the Backus-Naur form, a widely used notation to define formal language syntax. He joined IBM in 1950. In 1953, he developed the language Speedcoding, the first high-level language created for an IBM computer, to aid in software development for the IBM 701 computer, and in 1954 he assembled a team to define and develop Fortran for the IBM 704 computer. The IEEE awarded Backus the W. W. McDowell Award in 1967 for the development of FORTRAN. He received the National Medal of Science in 1975.