John Hopcroft

American computer scientist

Born: October 7, 1939

Famous Persons

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Overview

Legacy

Hopcroft worked for three years at Princeton University and since then has been at Cornell University.

Who is John Hopcroft?

John Edward Hopcroft (born October 7, 1939) is an American theoretical computer scientist. He is a professor emeritus at Cornell University, co-director of the Center on Frontiers of Computing Studies at Peking University, the director of the John Hopcroft Center for Computer Science at Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Hopcroft Center on Computer Science at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Hopcroft received a Bachelor of Science with a major in electrical engineering from Seattle University in 1961. He received a Master of Science in electrical engineering in 1962 and a Doctor of Philosophy in electrical engineering in 1964, both from Stanford University. Hopcroft is the grandson of Jacob Nist, who established the Seattle-Tacoma Box Company in 1889.

Historical significance

His textbooks on theory of computation (also known as the Cinderella book) and data structures are regarded as standards in their fields. He and Robert Tarjan won the 1986 ACM Turing Award.

Sources and further reading

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Wikipedia source

Cite this page

MLA

“John Hopcroft.” thisDay, thisday.info/people/john-hopcroft/. Accessed 7 Oct. 2026.

APA

John Hopcroft. (n.d.). thisDay. Retrieved October 7, 2026, from https://thisday.info/people/john-hopcroft/

Chicago

“John Hopcroft.” thisDay. Accessed October 7, 2026. https://thisday.info/people/john-hopcroft/.

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