The 2004 Laureates / Advanced Technology Category / Information Science
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Alan Curtis Kay

U.S.A. / May 17, 1940
Computer Scientist; President, Viewpoints Research Institute

"Creation of the concept of modern personal computing and contribution to its realization"
In the second half of the 1960s, when the mainstream trend was toward ever larger computers, Dr. Kay proposed the concept of the personal computer as a tool to support the intellectual work of individuals, and so initiated a paradigm shift in the computer world. Furthermore, as a pioneer in the development of the graphic user interface and object-oriented language environment, he has made a fundamental contribution to the realization of today's personal computing.

BRIEF BIOGRAPHY
1940
Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.A.
1969
University of Utah Ph.D. (Computer Science)
1969-1971
Research Associate and Lecturer, AI Project, Stanford University
1971-1981
Researcher and Fellow, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
1981-1984
Chief Scientist, Atari
1984-1996
Fellow, Apple Computer
1996-2001
Vice President, Research and Development, The Walt Disney Co.
2001-present
Founder and President, Viewpoints Research Institute, Inc.
2002-present
Senior Fellow, Hewlett-Packard Company
2002-present
Program Manager, IPA Exploratory Software Project
present
Visiting Professor, Department of Social Informatics, Kyoto University
present
Adjunct Professor, Department of Computer Science, UCLA
present
Sr. Scientist, Div. Info. Technology, University of Wisconsin-Madison

SELECTED AWARDS AND HONORS
1987
Software Systems Award, ACM
1989
Lifetime Achievement Award, SPA
1990
J-D Warnier Prix d'Informatique
1992
Outstanding Educator Award, ACM SIGCSE
2001
Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Computing Award, IMAS
2001
C&C Prize, NEC
2003
A. M. Turing Award, ACM
2004
C. S. Draper Prize, National Academy of Engineering
Members:
Royal Society of Arts, National Academy of Engineering

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
1977
Personal dynamic media (with Adele Goldberg), IEEE Computer, March, 31
1984
Computer Software, Scientific American, 251, 41
1990
User interface: A personal view, in The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design, ed.
(Brenda Laurel, Addison-Wesley) 191
1996
The early history of smalltalk, in ACM History of programming languages II,
(Addison-Wesley)
1997
Back to the future: the story of squeak - a usable smalltalk written in itself
(with D. Ingalls, T. Kaehler, J. Maloney, S. Wallace), OOPSLA 1997: 318