1. Albert Einstein. It was Einstein’s theoretical work that led to the development of the atomic bomb, thrusting the world into the nuclear age. But his desire was never to create a bomb, it was to push the limits of science and challenge commonly accepted theories. And challenge them he did, ranging from the revelation that light was made up of both waves and particles to the idea that matter and energy are equivalent. To say that Einstein singlehandedly saved science in the 20th century is no understatement, since by the 1900′s the Industrial Revolution had begun to fade the shine of science in the 19th century.
2. Gordon Moore. The author of Moore’s law and co-founder of Intel is significant for many reasons, but the main one is this: he saw the need for increasingly powerful central processing units in computing, and changed Intel’s heading accordingly. The result? Today Intel’s architecture in CPUs is the industry standard, for everything from smartphones to blenders. Even Apple, which once prided itself on having nothing to do with evil Big Blue and its clones, has switched to Intel brains (but don’t tell Steve Jobs).
3. Steve Jobs. Pretty obvious choice here. Co-inventor of the personal computer. Successful marketer of the first “mouse” for PCs. Designed and developed the first PC to actually make any money, the Apple II (remember, the one your school had in the ’80s?). Then, after miraculously coming back from the corporate dead in 1996, he stormed onto the high tech scene in recent years with the iPod, the iPhone, and most recently the iPad. Jobs’ ability to combine the latest technological advancements with a sexy skin that everyone and their mother want to buy has made him a cultural icon. Apple’s latest innovation is watched carefully by everyone in the industry, and there’s no one that has the brand power that Apple does today.
4. Bill Gates. Another no-brainer. As founder of Microsoft, Gates is directly responsible for Windows, the operating systems that runs on something like 90% of the world’s computers. Sure, he may not have invented DOS himself, and he may be the worst business tycoon since the railroad monopolies of the 1800′s. But you can’t deny his influence. Microsoft’s continued dominance in the operating system market has ensured that even through the massive changes in computing from the 1980′s until now, the company is still the only real choice for anyone in need of a way to make their PC work.
5. Tim Berners-Lee. Although the internet had many parents and stands on the shoulders of even more inventors in order to become the thing we all know and love as the World Wide Web today, it was Tim who is widely credited with inventing it. It was he who sent the first message using hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) client and a server in 1990, and him again who created the first web site at Info.cern.ch, running on a computer there at CERN where he had an independent contractor job. And now, you can discover the 32 different uses of ear wax thanks to the instant communication of the internet.
Dave Turner writes on many subjects including, how to find the best PhD in Information Systems programs.
