Maurice Wilkes belongs to the record of technology as a figure whose work outlasted the moment that produced it.
The record lists Maurice Wilkes as British computer scientist (1913–2010).
Maurice Wilkes was born at Dudley in 1913. His recorded nationality is the United Kingdom. He was educated at St John's College and King Edward VI College, Stourbridge.
Around the turn of the twentieth century, national institutions, mass media and mass politics changed both the scale of a career and its risks.
He worked as computer scientist, engineer and physicist.
His affiliations include Digital Equipment Corporation, University of Cambridge and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His principal work is Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator. Technology is judged by adoption: an invention nobody uses is a curiosity.
His recorded fields of work are computer science, informatics and physics.
His work was formally recognised with the Fellow of the Royal Society, Mountbatten Medal and IEEE John von Neumann Medal.
That the work was done from the United Kingdom matters. Opportunity has never been evenly distributed, and where a person is based shapes which doors open and whose work gets seen.
Maurice Wilkes died in 2010, aged 97. What survives is the work, which is the only durable form of a reputation.
Achievements
- Notable work: Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator
- Affiliated with Digital Equipment Corporation, University of Cambridge and Massachusetts Institute of Technology
- Educated at St John's College, King Edward VI College, Stourbridge and University of Cambridge
- Worked as computer scientist, engineer and physicist
