Maurice Karnaugh

Maurice Karnaugh ( born October 4, 1924 in New York City ), pronunciation [ kɑ ː ɹnɔ ː ], is an American physicist and computer scientist.

Karnaugh studied 1944-1948 mathematics and physics at the City College of New York. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science degree, he went to Yale University in New Haven ( Connecticut ), where in 1950 the degree of Master of Science, and in 1952 earned his doctorate in physics. At the same time he worked as a research assistant and professor here from 1948 to 1952.

He then took over from 1952 to 1966 as a professor of experimental research executive positions at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill (New Jersey). His scientific work was particularly true in the field of heuristic. Karnaugh developed new techniques and methods for the rapid design of information technology systems. The specially developed by him and for him as a Karnaugh map ( Karnaugh Veitch diagram, KV diagram) named method he described in 1953 in the journal Communications and Electronics.

From 1966 to 1970 Karnaugh joined as managing director and head of research and development in the service of the Federal Systems Diversity. He then went from 1970 to 1989 as a senior researcher at IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights (New York). From 1981 until retirement in 1989 taught Karnaugh also a professor of computer science at Polytechnic University of New York. In addition, he reported on his scientific work in numerous publications.