Mathematician:John Warner Backus

Mathematician

American computer scientist, significantly involved in the development of several computer languages, including ALGOL and FORTRAN.

The metalanguage Backus-Naur Form (BNF) was named after him (who invented it) and Peter Naur (who refined it).

Nationality

American

History

• Born: December 3, 1924
• Died: March 17, 2007

Theorems and Definitions

• Backus-Naur Form (with Peter Naur) (also known as Backus normal form)

Definitions of concepts named for John Warner Backus can be found here.

Publications

• 1977: Can Programming Be Liberated From the von Neumann Style? (Turing Award Lecture)