Michael Dertouzos

Michael Leonidas Dertouzos ( born November 5, 1936 in Athens, † August 27 2001 in Boston ) was a Greek- American computer scientist.

Life and achievements

After attending high school in Athens, he studied on a Fulbright scholarship at the University of Arkansas and was founded in 1964 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Alfred Susskind doctorate ( Threshold Element Synthesis). From 1974 to 2001 he was director of the MIT Laboratory for Computer Science ( LCS ) at MIT, which emerged from the Project MAC. During this time, the LCS was involved in the development of time-sharing systems, RSA cryptosystem, the Spreadsheet, NuBus, X Window System, the ARPAnet and the Internet. He was much involved to get the W3C to MIT. He also saw the PC revolution ahead early and took advantage of his reputation in the prediction of technological developments as well as a government - and corporate consultant and author of several best-sellers. He spoke last for projects for better adaptation of computer uses in everyday life of the people ( Human Centered Computing).

Dertouzos supported at MIT the GNU Project by Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation.

He was a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the Athens Academy of Sciences. He was an honorary doctorate from the University of Athens and the Greek commander of the Legion of Honour. He was a member of the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations. He had both the U.S. and the Greek citizenship and was advisor to the Greek government. In addition, he maintained close contacts with the European Union. In 1997, he was Co-Chair of the Conference on networked society at the World Economic Forum in Davos and 1995 he was the U.S. representative at the G7 Conference on the Information Society.

During the Carter administration, he advised the President in the redesign of the information systems of the White House.

In 1968 he co-founded the company Computek that produced some of the early graphical and intelligent computer terminals, based partly on our own patents. He sold his shares in the company when he became director of the LCS.

He is buried in Athens.

Writings

  • Made in America. Regaining the productive edge, MIT Press 1989
  • What Will Be: How the New World of Information Will Change Our ​​Lives, Harper Collins 1997
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