Kristen Nygaard
Norwegian computer scientist and mathematician
Who was Kristen Nygaard?
Kristen Nygaard (27 August 1926 – 10 August 2002) was a Norwegian computer scientist, programming language pioneer, and politician. Nygaard was born in Oslo and received his master's degree in mathematics at the University of Oslo in 1956. Internationally, Nygaard is acknowledged as the co-inventor of object-oriented programming and the programming language Simula with Ole-Johan Dahl in the 1960s. His thesis on abstract probability theory was entitled "Theoretical Aspects of Monte Carlo methods". Nygaard worked full-time at the Norwegian Defense Research Establishment from 1948 to 1960, in computing and programming (1948–1954) and operational research (1952–1960). In 1960, he was hired by the Norwegian Computing Center (NCC), responsible for building up the NCC as a research institute in the 1960s, becoming its Director of Research in 1962.
Historical significance
Nygaard and Dahl received the 2001 A. M. Turing Award for their contribution to computer science. From 1957 to 1960, he was head of the first operations research groups in the Norwegian defense establishment. He was cofounder and first chairman of the Norwegian Operational Research Society (1959–1964).