Famous Computer Scientists from the United States

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Updated October 14, 2018545 items

List of notable or famous computer scientists from the United States, with bios and photos, including the top computer scientists born in the United States and even some popular computer scientists who immigrated to the United States. If you're trying to find out the names of famous American computer scientists then this list is the perfect resource for you. These computer scientists are among the most prominent in their field, and information about each well-known computer scientist from the United States is included when available.

List people range from Larry Page to Sergey Brin.

This historic computer scientists from the United States list can help answer the questions "Who are some American computer scientists of note?" and "Who are the most famous computer scientists from the United States?" These prominent computer scientists of the United States may or may not be currently alive, but what they all have in common is that they're all respected American computer scientists.

Use this list of renowned American computer scientists to discover some new computer scientists that you aren't familiar with. Don't forget to share this list by clicking one of the social media icons at the top or bottom of the page. {#nodes}
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  • Marissa Mayer
    • Birthplace: Wausau, Wisconsin
    Marissa Ann Mayer (; born May 30, 1975) is an American information technology executive, and co-founder of Lumi Labs. Mayer formerly served as the president and chief executive officer of Yahoo!, a position she held from July 2012. It was announced in January 2017 that she would step down from the company's board upon the sale of Yahoo!'s operating business to Verizon Communications for $4.8 billion. She would not join the newly combined company, now called Verizon Media (formerly Oath), and announced her resignation on June 13, 2017. She is a graduate of Stanford University and was a long-time executive, usability leader, and key spokeswoman for Google (employee #20).
  • Larry Page

    Larry Page

    Age: 50
    • Birthplace: East Lansing, Michigan
    Lawrence Edward Page (born March 26, 1973) is an American computer scientist and Internet entrepreneur who co-founded Google with Sergey Brin.Page is the chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc. (Google's parent company). After stepping aside as Google CEO in August 2001, in favor of Eric Schmidt, he re-assumed the role in April 2011. He announced his intention to step aside a second time in July 2015, to become CEO of Alphabet, under which Google's assets would be reorganized. Under Page, Alphabet is seeking to deliver major advancements in a variety of industries.As of June 2019, Page is the 12th-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $51.1 billion. Forbes placed him 10th in the list "Billionaires 2019". Page is the co-inventor of PageRank, a well-known search ranking algorithm for Google, which he wrote with Brin. Page received the Marconi Prize in 2004 with Brin.
  • Sergey Brin
    • Birthplace: Russia, Moscow
    Sergey Mikhaylovich Brin (Russian: Серге́й Миха́йлович Брин; born August 21, 1973) is an American computer scientist and Internet entrepreneur. Together with Larry Page, he co-founded Google. Brin is the president of Google's parent company Alphabet Inc. As of June 2019, Brin is the 13th-richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of US$50.1 billion.Brin immigrated to the United States with his family from the Soviet Union at the age of 6. He earned his bachelor's degree at the University of Maryland, College Park, following in his father's and grandfather's footsteps by studying mathematics, as well as computer science. After graduation, he enrolled in Stanford University to acquire a PhD in computer science. There he met Page, with whom he built a web search engine. The program became popular at Stanford, and they suspended their PhD studies to start up Google in Susan Wojcicki's garage in Menlo Park.
  • Steve Wozniak
    • Birthplace: San Jose, USA, California
    Stephen Gary "Woz" Wozniak (; born August 11, 1950) is an American inventor, electronics engineer, programmer, philanthropist, and technology entrepreneur. In 1976 he co-founded Apple Inc., which later became the world's largest information technology company by revenue and largest company in the world by market capitalization. He and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs are widely recognized as two prominent pioneers of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. In 1975, Wozniak started developing the Apple I into the computer that launched Apple when he and Jobs first began marketing it the following year. He primarily designed the Apple II in 1977, known as one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputers, while Jobs oversaw among other things the development of its foam-molded plastic case and early Apple employee Rod Holt developed the switching power supply. With computer scientist Jef Raskin, Wozniak had major influence over the initial development of the original Apple Macintosh concepts from 1979 to 1981, when Jobs took over the project following Wozniak's brief departure from the company due to a traumatic airplane accident. After permanently leaving Apple in 1985, Wozniak founded CL 9 and created the first programmable universal remote, released in 1987. He then pursued several other business and philanthropic ventures throughout his career, focusing largely on technology in K–12 schools.As of January 2018, Wozniak has remained an employee of Apple in a ceremonial capacity since stepping down in 1985.
  • Grace Hopper

    Grace Hopper

    Dec. at 85 (1906-1992)
    • Birthplace: New York City, New York
    Grace Brewster Murray Hopper (née Murray December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist and United States Navy rear admiral. One of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer, she was a pioneer of computer programming who invented one of the first linkers. She popularized the idea of machine-independent programming languages, which led to the development of COBOL, an early high-level programming language still in use today. Prior to joining the Navy, Hopper earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from Yale University and was a professor of mathematics at Vassar College. Hopper attempted to enlist in the Navy during World War II but was rejected because she was 34 years old. She instead joined the Navy Reserves. Hopper began her computing career in 1944 when she worked on the Harvard Mark I team led by Howard H. Aiken. In 1949, she joined the Eckert–Mauchly Computer Corporation and was part of the team that developed the UNIVAC I computer. At Eckert–Mauchly she began developing the compiler. She believed that a programming language based on English was possible. Her compiler converted English terms into machine code understood by computers. By 1952, Hopper had finished her program linker (originally called a compiler), which was written for the A-0 System. During her wartime service, she co-authored three papers based on her work on the Harvard Mark 1. In 1954, Eckert–Mauchly chose Hopper to lead their department for automatic programming, and she led the release of some of the first compiled languages like FLOW-MATIC. In 1959, she participated in the CODASYL consortium, which consulted Hopper to guide them in creating a machine-independent programming language. This led to the COBOL language, which was inspired by her idea of a language being based on English words. In 1966, she retired from the Naval Reserve, but in 1967 the Navy recalled her to active duty. She retired from the Navy in 1986 and found work as a consultant for the Digital Equipment Corporation, sharing her computing experiences. The U.S. Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Hopper was named for her, as was the Cray XE6 "Hopper" supercomputer at NERSC. During her lifetime, Hopper was awarded 40 honorary degrees from universities across the world. A college at Yale University was renamed in her honor. In 1991, she received the National Medal of Technology. On November 22, 2016, she was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama.
  • Gordon Moore
    • Birthplace: USA, California, San Francisco
    Gordon Earle Moore (born January 3, 1929) is an American businessman, engineer, and the co-founder and chairman emeritus of Intel Corporation. He is also the author of Moore's law. As of April 2019, Moore's net worth is reported to be $10.4 billion.