Voices of Science

Maurice Wilkes (1913-2010), computer technologist, led the development of the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) at the University of Cambridge Mathematical Laboratory. EDSAC was the first practical stored-program computer intended to provide a service to scientists in other disciplines and was the basis for the world's first business computer, LEO (the Lyons Electronic Office). He was also a pioneerin the development of programming and in computer networking, continuing to work at Cambridge until his retirement from the university in 1980. He continued to work on a variety of projects until he was in his nineties. Wilkes was the first president of the British Computer Society and received numerous honours for his pioneering role in the development of computer technology.