2021 FELLOWS

Peter Denning

Naval Postgraduate School

For distinguished accomplishments and service to Sigma Xi though the Science of Computing column in American Scientist, and to the scientific enterprise through research, teaching, and curricular innovation.

Quote

"Sigma Xi had a special appeal for me when I was invited to join in 1967 while still a graduate student at MIT. My undergraduate studies in electrical engineering had left me feeling as a sort of pioneer in the new world of computers, where science had not yet achieved an understanding of computation. Sigma Xi opened another dimension for me – the opportunity to focus on finding the fundamental principles of computation in all areas from programs to systems. When I combined the engineering and the science, I could discern how a new idea would work in practice – if it worked at all.

Ever since I could remember, I had a penchant for looking for fundamental principles behind technologies and writing up my findings in essays for my colleagues and students. In 1984, some of these writings had come to the attention of Michelle Press, the editor of American Scientist. She called me and said she wanted to start a column about computer science so that the readership in the other sciences would gain an appreciation of how computing worked in science. I leapt at her proposal. Michelle and I quickly agreed to call it the “science of computing” column. I carved out time in my life to write six columns a year, one for each issue. She assigned one of her editors, Steve Mayer, to work with me on each column. Over time, Steve taught me a writing style that he didn’t feel the urge to edit.

Writing the columns took me quickly and deeply into the new field of computational science. At the time, I was director of RIACS, a computational science institute at NASA-Ames. The Science of Computing column helped me expand my knowledge of science and showcase computing in ways that other scientists appreciated. Computational science was an emerging branch of science that specialized in using computation to advance science. To differentiate this style of science from the more traditional theory and experiment, those in the new field used the term “computational thinking” to describe the thought processes of investigating phenomena with mathematical models and simulations on supercomputers. The term also came to apply to developing information process models for natural phenomena. Ken Wilson, a physicist, earned a Nobel Prize from his computational work with renormalization groups. Ken was one of my mentors in computational science. He had brought computational science to public attention by articulating a series of “grand challenge” problems throughout science that could be cracked by advanced algorithms on coming generations of supercomputers. An example we worked on with NASA was “flying an airplane inside a computer” – meaning, to simulate the airflows around the full aircraft and eliminate the need for wind tunnel testing. This goal was achieved with the Boeing 777 airliner in 1994.

After the US Congress passed the High Performance Computing and Communication Act in 1991 to support “grand challenge” research, computational science became enshrined into scientific thinking as the various fields established their own computational branches. It also enshrined the term “computational thinking” into science.

I wrote the columns from 1984 to 1993. The string ended in 1993 when Sigma Xi decided to move its offices from New Haven, CT, to Research Triangle Park, NC. Michelle Press and her entire editorial staff declined to move. Sigma Xi had to restart American Scientist in their new location with a new editorial board. I occasionally write new columns for Fenella Saunders, the current editor of American Scientist."

Biography

Peter Denning was fascinated with science from an early age and began building electronic circuits as a teenager. His algebraic computer built from pinball machine parts won the science fair in 1959, launching him into the new field of computing. A decade later, at MIT’s Project MAC for his doctorate, he took on the gnarly performance problem of the nascent virtual memory technology. Instabilities with thrashing and replacement algorithms threatened to scuttle that technology. He invented the Working Set Model, which immunized operating systems to thrashing and maximized system throughput. His solutions to these problems are widely used today in operating systems from desktops to smartphones. He is widely known as a virtual memory and computer systems performance pioneer.

He became an educator and taught computer science at Princeton, Purdue, NASA-Ames, George Mason University, and Naval Postgraduate School. At NASA-Ames, he established RIACS as one of the nation’s leading centers in computation science, working on high performance computing, telescience, and neural networks. In the early 2000s, he established the Great Principles of Computing Project, which seeded a major reform in computing education. He co-founded the CSNET, the first community network to use the Internet technology, leading the transition to the modern Internet.

At NASA-Ames he became keenly interested in technology transfer and adoption. He went on to develop a way of teaching innovation leadership for adoption, co-author a book (innovators-way.com) and found an Innovation Leadership program at the Naval Postgraduate school.
Dr. Denning has been recognized for his contributions with 33 awards for technical contribution, education, and professional service. These include his 1959 grand award for building a linear-equation solving computer, his international award for co-founding CSNET, his Hall of Fame award for his early work in operating systems, his outstanding educator and teaching awards, and his 2021 IEEE Computer Pioneer Award.

Since 1965, Dr. Denning was an active contributor to the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). He edited four journals including Communications. He chaired three boards including the Publications Board, where he led the development of the ACM’s digital library, the first full online library offered by a professional society. He served as an officer, council member, and President.

2021 FELLOWS

Peter Denning

Quote

Biography

About

Programs

Chapters

Meetings & Events

Members

News

Publications