He won the ACM Turing Award, considered the Nobel Prize for computer science, in 1972. Dijkstra; has influenced algorithm design, programming languages, program design, operating systems, canonical specification and formal verification, mathematical argument design, and distributed processing.
Edsger Dijkstra, born on May 11, 1930, in Rotterdam, Netherlands, became one of the most important people in computer science. Dijkstra was the third of four children of a mathematician mother and a chemist father. He studied at Gymnasium Erasminium, a high school for gifted students. In his last year of high school, he was considering studying law; But after graduating with the highest possible scores in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology, he decided to study mathematics and physics with the guidance of his family and teachers. After graduating from Leiden University in theoretical physics in 1956, he completed his doctorate at the University of Amsterdam.
Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (11 May 1930 – 6 August 2002) was a Dutch computer scientist, programmer, software engineer, and science essayist. He received the 1972 Turing Award for fundamental contributions to developing structured programming languages. Shortly before his death, he received the ACM PODC Influential Paper Award in distributed computing for his work on self-stabilization of program computation. This annual award was renamed the Dijkstra Prize the following year, in his honor.
Between 1952 and 1962 he worked at the Matematisch Centrium, Amsterdam (later renamed the National Research Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science). In September 1962 he became a professor at the Department of Mathematics at the Technical University of Eindhoven. In 1973, he began distributing his reports with the signature “Burroughs Research Center” and the address of his home in Nuenen. In fact, Dijkstra was the only research assistant of the Burroughs Corporation in the USA, and most people thought that this company was in Nuenen.
He reduced his duties at the university to one day a week. That day was Tuesday, and it turned into a Tuesday seminar known as the “Tuesday Afternoon Club,” where he and his colleague discussed all aspects of articles—spelling, layout, language, and content. When he went to the University of Austin, Texas, in 1984, he continued these Tuesday meetings in Austin. He worked in Austin until his retirement as professor emeritus in 1999. He returned home to Nuenen sick in February 2002 and died of cancer on August 6, 2002.
In 1959, he designed the 'shortest path algorithm', also known by his name. Dijkstra came up with this algorithm, which will affect the next 40 years, while drinking coffee with his wife on a sunny cafe terrace, without pen and paper.
He took part in programming the first computer in the Netherlands and the first computer in Europe with an interrupt feature.
Dijkstra, a good writer, left over 1300 scientific writings. He regularly communicated with hundreds of friends and colleagues by letter rather than email. For his scientific writings and letters, he first used a typewriter and later a fountain pen. Dijkstra's handwriting was excellent. So much so that in the 1980s the DEC Systems Research Center developed the 'Dijkstra' font for the Macintosh.
He was known for being cold and harsh, and occasionally rude, towards his co-workers. But in personal meetings in his office, he would be friendly, serving coffee to his students and cracking original jokes. He had his own unique sense of humor.
Maria (Ria), to whom he was married for more than 40 years, would not leave him alone. He traveled with Dijkstra and attended his classes. They had 3 children and 2 grandchildren, Marcus, Femke and Rutger. Dijkstra enjoyed playing Mozart for his friend on his Boesondorfen piano. He also loved exploring the city with his wife in his minivan.
"He was like a man with a light in the darkness," Computer Science Department Chair Strother Moore said at Dijkstra's funeral. He said: "He has illuminated almost all of the subjects he has addressed."