John Backus
American computer scientist (1924–2007)
Also known as John Warner Backus · John W. Backus
- Born
- December 3, 1924
2
Sources- 1.Stated in MacTutor History of Mathematics archiveRetrieved 2017-08-22
- 2.Stated in SNACRetrieved 2017-10-09
- December 3, 1924
- Died
- March 17, 2007
3
Sources- 1.Stated in John W. Backus, 82, Fortran Developer, Dies“John W. Backus, 82, Fortran Developer, Dies”nytimes.com/2007/03/19/obituaries/20cnd-backus.htmlRetrieved 2021-03-13
- 2.Stated in MacTutor History of Mathematics archiveRetrieved 2017-08-22
- 3.Stated in SNACRetrieved 2017-10-09
- March 17, 2007
- Birthplace
- Place of death
- Citizenship
- Occupation
- Education
- Columbia University(1946–1950)
1
- , University of Virginia(1942–1943)
1
- , The Hill School(until 1942)
1
- Columbia University(1946–1950)
- Employer
- IBM(1950–1991)
1
- , United States Army(1943–1945)
- IBM(1950–1991)
Overview
Life at a glance
Positions, education, employers and awards over time
Spans and dates from Wikidata qualifiers (start/end/point in time). Hover for details; click to open.
Related
All data
87 statements · 37% with external sources · numbers in brackets are citations
- Sex or gender
- male
1
Sources- 1.Stated in Czech National Authority DatabaseRetrieved 2025-08-29
- male
- Awards
- Programming Languages Achievement Award(2004)
- Computer History Museum Fellow(1997)
- Charles Stark Draper Prize(1993) award rationale: for his development of FORTRAN, the first widely used, general purpose, high-level computer language
1
- honorary doctorate of the Henri Poincaré University(January 4, 1989)
1
- Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences(1985)
- IRI Achievement Award(1984)
- Harold Pender Award(1983)
- Turing Award(1977)
1
Show 3 moreShow less
- National Medal of Science(1975)
1
- W. Wallace McDowell Award(1967)
1
- IBM Fellow(1963)
1
Sources- 1.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/builders/builders_backus.htmlRetrieved 2022-02-17
- Member of
- National Academy of Sciences(since 1974) subject has role: Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States
2
Sources- 1.Stated in NNDB
- 2.“John Backus – NAS”nasonline.org/directory-entry/john-backus-igklr8/Retrieved 2025-08-08
- American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- National Academy of Sciences(since 1974) subject has role: Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States
- Archives at
- Computer History Museum
1
Sources- 1.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102657970Retrieved 2016-12-19
- Computer History Museum
- Field of work
- computer science
- informatics
1
Sources- 1.Stated in Czech National Authority DatabaseRetrieved 2022-11-07
- Place of burial
- San Francisco Columbarium burial plot reference: Section F Tier 4 · coordinates: 37.7806°N, 122.4569°W
1
- San Francisco Columbarium burial plot reference: Section F Tier 4 · coordinates: 37.7806°N, 122.4569°W
- Birth name
- John Warner Backus
1
- John Warner Backus
- Name in native language
- John Warner Backus
- Oral history at
- George Mason University Libraries Special Collections Research Center
1
Sources- 1.“Collection: Clarence E. Larson Science and Technology Oral History collection | George Mason University Special Collections Research Center ArchivesSpace”aspace.gmu.edu/resources/C0079Retrieved 2026-06-17
- George Mason University Libraries Special Collections Research Center
On other databases
40 identifiers linking John Backus across the web's reference databases
- ACM Digital Library author ID81100233661
- Awards & Winners artist ID0jd8s
- Databazeknih.cz author ID128501
- DBLP author ID21/6475
- Encyclopædia Britannica Online IDbiography/John-Warner-Backus
- Evene IDjohn-backus-28765
- Fandom article IDmilitary-history:John_Backus
- FAST ID1508492
- Find a Grave memorial ID18747132
- Freebase ID/m/0jd8s
- Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana IDjohn-warner-backus
- Gran Enciclopèdia Catalana ID (former scheme)0283443
- IdRef ID083181385
- IEEE Xplore author ID38180293000
- ISNI0000000112115225
- Lex IDJohn_W._Backus
- Library of Congress Authorities IDn92106806
- Lur Encyclopedic Dictionary ID00699/eu_b_0076/b0076
- MacTutor biography IDBackus
- MR Author ID28950
- National Academy of Engineering member ID29745
- National Academy of Sciences member ID58078
- National Library of Poland MMS ID9810596092505606
- NE.se IDjohn-backus
- NL CR AUT IDxx0204479
- NLP IDa0000001717092
- NNDB people ID079/000129689
- NUKAT IDn2003031022
- Open Library IDOL7081445A
- Oxford Reference overview ID20110803095439760
- Prabook ID362048
- Quora topic IDJohn-Backus
- SBN author IDMILV310818
- Scopus author ID36864264900
- SNAC ARK IDw6w66qzg
- SVKKL authority ID0447729-Backus-John-W-19242007
- Treccani IDjohn-w-backus
- VIAF cluster ID163243510
- WikiTree person IDBackus-1385
- ZbMATH author IDbackus.j-w