ACM has named Alan Kay the winner of the 2003 Turing Award, considered the "Nobel Prize of Computing," for leading the team that invented Smalltalk, an influential programming language that used object-oriented concepts, and for fundamental contributions to personal computing. Smalltalk, the first complete dynamic object-oriented programming language, included a revolutionary visual authoring environment that is now common in computer applications. Dr. Kay, a Senior Fellow at Hewlett Packard Labs since 2002, is President of Viewpoints Research Institute, which he founded in 2001. The Turing Award carries a $100,000 prize, with funding provided by Intel Corporation.
Smalltalk unified objects and messages using clear and simple foundation concepts that represented a breakthrough in both language design and programming metaphors. These ideas influenced the design of subsequent object-oriented languages including C++ and Java.
Dr. Kay's deep interest in children and education led him to use Smalltalk as an early vehicle for teaching computing concepts at the elementary school level. At Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), he used findings of cognitive psychology that showed children learn better if touch, images and symbols are combined with plain text.
Professor Gary Chapman, director of the 21st Century Project at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, headed the 2003 Turing Award committee. He said Dr. Kay envisioned Smalltalk as part of a "user-centered" approach to computing, which led to the development of a basic component of graphical user interface, overlapping screen windows. He noted that Dr. Kay's team integrated these ideas into the earliest personal computer, the Xerox Alto. "Dr. Kay's concept of the 'Dynabook,' a simple book-sized computer that people could use in place of paper, inspired a generation of computer scientists and engineers. It laid the intellectual foundations for the personal computer revolution, from Apple Macintosh's stylish look to Microsoft Windows' graphically-oriented operating system" Chapman said.
A graduate of the University of Utah, Dr. Kay earned a PhD with distinction for the design of a graphical object-oriented personal computer, and an MS in electrical engineering. Dr. Kay was a member of the university's research team that developed pioneering 3-D graphics work for the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). He holds undergraduate degrees in mathematics and biology from the University of Colorado. He has also been Chief Scientist of Atari, a Fellow of Apple Computer, and Vice President of Research and Development at The Walt Disney Company. Dr. Kay is an advisor on the editorial board of ACM Computers in Entertainment, the online magazine covering theoretical and practical computer applications in the entertainment field.
Dr. Kay was one of four engineers awarded the Draper Prize from the National Academy of Engineering in May 2004 for the development of Alto. He was inducted into the Utah Information Technology Association as a "Hall of Fame Member" in November 2003. His Smalltalk team received the ACM Software System Award in 1987. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Royal Society of Arts, and the Computer Museum History Center. A former professional jazz guitarist, composer and theatrical designer, he is an amateur classical pipe organist.
ACM will present the Turing Award at the annual ACM Awards Banquet on June 5, 2004, at the Plaza Hotel in New York.
The award was named for Alan M. Turing, the British mathematician who articulated the mathematical foundation and limits of computing, and who was a key contributor to the Allied cryptanalysis of the German Enigma cipher during World War II. Since its inception in 1966, ACM's Turing Award has honored the computer scientists and engineers who created the systems and underlying theoretical foundations that have propelled the information technology industry.
