Bio


Donald Ervin Knuth is an American computer scientist, mathematician, and Professor Emeritus at Stanford University.

He is the author of the multi-volume work The Art of Computer Programming and has been called the "father" of the analysis of algorithms. He contributed to the development of the rigorous analysis of the computational complexity of algorithms and systematized formal mathematical techniques for it. In the process he also popularized the asymptotic notation. In addition to fundamental contributions in several branches of theoretical computer science, Knuth is the creator of the TeX computer typesetting system, the related METAFONT font definition language and rendering system, and the Computer Modern family of typefaces.

As a writer and scholar,[4] Knuth created the WEB and CWEB computer programming systems designed to encourage and facilitate literate programming, and designed the MIX/MMIX instruction set architectures. As a member of the academic and scientific community, Knuth is strongly opposed to the policy of granting software patents. He has expressed his disagreement directly to the patent offices of the United States and Europe. (via Wikipedia)

Academic Appointments


Honors & Awards


  • Grace Murray Hopper Award, ACM (1971)
  • Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1973)
  • Turing Award, ACM (1974)
  • Lester R Ford Award, Mathematical Association of America (1975)
  • Member, National Academy of Sciences (1975)
  • Distinguished Alumni Award, California Institute of Technology (1978)
  • National Medal of Science, President Carter (1979)
  • Distinguished Fellow, British Computer Society (1980)
  • Wallace McDowell Award, IEEE Computer Society (1980)
  • Member, National Academy of Engineering (1981)
  • Priestley Award, Dickinson College (1981)
  • Honorary Member, IEEE (1982)
  • Golden Plate Award, American Academy of Achievement (1985)
  • SIGCSE Award (Computer Science Education), ACM (1986)
  • Software Systems Award, ACM (1986)
  • Steele Prize for Exposition, American Mathematical Society (1986)
  • New York Academy of Sciences Award, New York Academy of Sciences (1987)
  • Franklin Medal, Franklin Institute (1988)
  • Gold Medal Award, Case Alumni Association (1990)
  • Foreign Associate, Académie des Sciences, Paris (1992)
  • Foreign Mermber, Norwegian Academy of Sciences (1993)
  • Lester R Ford Award, Mathematical Association of America (1993)
  • Adelsköld Medal, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (1994)
  • Best New Book: Computer Science, Association of American Publishers (1994)
  • Fellow, ACM (1994)
  • Harvey Prize, Technion (1995)
  • John von Neumann Medal, IEEE (1995)
  • Kyoto Prize, Inamori Foundation (1996)
  • Fellow, Computer History Museum (1998)
  • Foreign Member, Royal Society of London (2003)
  • Honorary Fellow, Magdalen College, Oxford (2005)
  • Foreign Member, Russian Academy of Sciences (2008)
  • Fellow, SIAM (2009)
  • Frontiers of Knowledge Award, BBVA Foundation (2010)
  • Katayanagi Prize, Carnegie-Mellon University (2010)
  • ABACUS Award, Upsilon Pi Upsilon (2011)
  • Faraday Medal, IET (2011)
  • Hero Award, Stanford University School of Engineering (2011)
  • Member, American Philosophical Sociery (2012)
  • Platinum Gold Medal for Computer Science Education, ETH Zürich (2012)
  • Fellow, American Mathematical Society (2013)
  • Peter Karow Award, ATypI (2013)
  • Honorary Member, London Mathematical Society (2015)
  • Trotter Prize, Texas A&M University (2018)

Professional Education


  • PhD, California Institute of Technology, Mathematics (1963)

Patents


  • Donald Knuth, Stephen N Schiller. "United States Patent 5,305,118 Methods of controlling dot size in digital half toning with multi-cell threshold arrays", Adobe Systems, Apr 19, 1994
  • Donald Knuth, LeRoy R Guck, Lawrence G Hanson. "United States Patent 3,626,167 Scaling and number base converting method and apparatus", Burroughs Corporation, Dec 7, 1971
  • Donald Knuth. "United States Patent 3,548,174 Random number generator", Burroughs Corporation, Dec 15, 1970
  • Donald Knuth, Donald P Hynes. "United States Patent 3,454,929 Computer edit system", Burroughs Corporation, Jul 8, 1969
  • Donald Knuth, Roger E Packard. "United States Patent 3,422,405 Digital computers having an indirect field length operation", Burroughs Corporation, Jan 14, 1969

All Publications


  • MMIX MIXWARE: A RISC COMPUTER FOR THE THIRD MILLENNIUM Knuth, D. E. 1999; 1750: 2-?
  • THE BIRTH OF THE GIANT COMPONENT RANDOM STRUCTURES & ALGORITHMS Janson, S., Knuth, D. E., Luczak, T., Pittel, B. 1993; 4 (3): 233-358
  • 2 NOTES ON NOTATION AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL MONTHLY Knuth, D. E. 1992; 99 (5): 403-422
  • AXIOMS AND HULLS LECTURE NOTES IN COMPUTER SCIENCE Knuth, D. E. 1992; 606: R3-?
  • THE ERRORS OF TEX SOFTWARE-PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE Knuth, D. E. 1989; 19 (7): 607-685
  • LITERATE PROGRAMMING COMPUTER JOURNAL Knuth, D. E. 1984; 27 (2): 97-111
  • THE CONCEPT OF A META-FONT VISIBLE LANGUAGE Knuth, D. E. 1982; 16 (1): 3-27
  • BREAKING PARAGRAPHS INTO LINES SOFTWARE-PRACTICE & EXPERIENCE Knuth, D. E., Plass, M. F. 1981; 11 (11): 1119-1184
  • MATHEMATICAL TYPOGRAPHY BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY Knuth, D. E. 1979; 1 (2): 337-372
  • MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTER SCIENCE - COPING WITH FINITENESS SCIENCE Knuth, D. E. 1976; 194 (4271): 1235-1242

    Abstract

    By presenting these examples, I have tried to illustrate four main points. 1) Finite numbers can be really enormous, and the known universe is very small. Therefore the distinction between finite and infinite is not as relevant as the distinction between realistic and unrealistic. 2) In many cases there are subtle ways to solve very large problems quickly, in spite of the fact that they appear at first to require examination of too many possibilities. 3) There are also cases where we can prove that a fairly natural problem is intrinsically hard, far beyond our conceivable capabilities. 4) It takes a good deal of skill to decide whether a given problem is in the easy or hard class; but even if a problem does turn out to be hard there are useful and interesting ways to change it into one that can be done satisfactorily.

    View details for Web of Science ID A1976CN68700005

    View details for PubMedID 17797067

  • COMPUTER PROGRAMMING AS AN ART COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM Knuth, D. E. 1974; 17 (12): 667-673
  • Balanced Colorings of Graphs Proposal AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL MONTHLY Kale, S., Chvatal, V., Knuth, D. E., West, D. B. 2023; 130 (5): 488-489
  • Let's Not Dumb Down the History of Computer Science COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM Knuth, D. E., Shustek, L. 2021; 64 (2): 33–35

    View details for DOI 10.1145/3442377

    View details for Web of Science ID 000613706000022

  • Dispersed Rooks on a Chessboard AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL MONTHLY Knuth, D. E. 2020; 127 (4): 379
  • A Property of Conjugate Partitions Proposal AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL MONTHLY Knuth, D. E. 2020; 127 (2): 186
  • Log-Concavity of a Binomial Sum Proposal AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL MONTHLY Knuth, D., Zhou, L. 2019; 126 (3): 283–84
  • A Permanent Solution AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL MONTHLY Knuth, D. 2018; 125 (10): 946
  • Fantasia Apocalyptica Illustrated Bibby, D. R., Knuth, D. E. CSLI Publications. 2018
  • Balanced Tilings of a Rectangle with Three Rows AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL MONTHLY Knuth, D. 2018; 125 (6): 566
  • Mathematical Vanity Plates MATHEMATICAL INTELLIGENCER Knuth, D. E. 2011; 33 (1): 33-45
  • Companion to the papers of Donald Knuth Knuth, D. E. CSLI Publications. 2011
  • Selected papers on design of algorithms Knuth, D. E. CSLI Publications. 2010
  • A symmetric Eulerian identity Journal of Combinatorics Chung, F., Graham, R., Knuth, D. 2010; 1 (1): 29-38
  • Robert W Floyd, in memoriam IEEE ANNALS OF THE HISTORY OF COMPUTING Knuth, D. E. 2004; 26 (2): 75-83
  • Efficient coroutine generation of constrained gray sequences FROM OBJECT-ORIENTATION TO FORMAL METHODS Knuth, D. E., Ruskey, R. 2004; 2635: 183-208
  • Selected papers on discrete mathematics Knuth, D. E. CSLI Publications. 2003
  • Selected papers on computer languages Knuth, D. E. CSLI Publications. 2003
  • Things a computer scientist rarely talks about Knuth, D. E. CSLI Publications. 2001
  • Selected papers on the analysis of algorithms Knuth, D. E. CSLI Publications. 2000
  • Dancing links Millennial Perspectives in Computer Science Knuth, D. E. Palgrave. 2000: 187–214
  • Linear probing and graphs ALGORITHMICA Knuth, D. E. 1998; 22 (4): 561-568
  • Aztec diamonds, checkerboard graphs, and spanning trees JOURNAL OF ALGEBRAIC COMBINATORICS Knuth, D. E. 1997; 6 (3): 253-257
  • Partitioned tensor products and their spectra JOURNAL OF ALGEBRAIC COMBINATORICS Knuth, D. E. 1997; 6 (3): 259-267
  • Shellsort with three increments RANDOM STRUCTURES & ALGORITHMS Janson, S., Knuth, D. E. 1997; 10 (1-2): 125-142
  • An exact analysis of stable allocation JOURNAL OF ALGORITHMS Knuth, D. E. 1996; 20 (2): 431-442
  • On the Lambert W function ADVANCES IN COMPUTATIONAL MATHEMATICS Corless, R. M., Gonnet, G. H., HARE, D. E., Jeffrey, D. J., Knuth, D. E. 1996; 5 (4): 329-359
  • Irredundant intervals ACM Journal of Experimental Algorithmics Knuth, D. E. 1996; 1: 1-19
  • Selected papers on computer science Knuth, D. E. CSLI Publications. 1996
  • The Knowlton-Graham partition problem JOURNAL OF COMBINATORIAL THEORY SERIES A Knuth, D. E. 1996; 73 (1): 185-189
  • ON THE INVERSION OF Y(ALPHA) E(Y) IN TERMS OF ASSOCIATED STIRLING NUMBERS COMPTES RENDUS DE L ACADEMIE DES SCIENCES SERIE I-MATHEMATIQUE Jeffrey, D. J., Corless, R. M., HARE, D. E., Knuth, D. E. 1995; 320 (12): 1449-1452
  • 2-WAY ROUNDING SIAM JOURNAL ON DISCRETE MATHEMATICS Knuth, D. E. 1995; 8 (2): 281-290
  • Polynomials involving the floor function MATHEMATICA SCANDINAVICA HALAND, I. J., Knuth, D. E. 1995; 76 (2): 194-200
  • SPEECH UPON RECEIVING HONORARY DEGREE FROM ST-PETERSBURG UNIVERSITY PROGRAMMING AND COMPUTER SOFTWARE Knuth, D. E. 1994; 20 (6): 290-290
  • MINI-INDEXES FOR LITERATE PROGRAMS SOFTWARE-CONCEPTS AND TOOLS Knuth, D. E. 1994; 15 (1): 2-11
  • The sandwich theorem Electronic Journal of Combinatorics Knuth, D. E. 1994; 1: 1-48
  • Leaper graphs The Mathematical Gazette Knuth, D. E. 1994; 78: 274-297
  • FAULHABER,JOHANN AND SUMS OF POWERS MATHEMATICS OF COMPUTATION Knuth, D. E. 1993; 61 (203): 277-294
  • THE STANFORD GRAPHBASE - A PLATFORM FOR COMBINATORIAL ALGORITHMS 4TH ANNUAL ACM-SIAM SYMP ON DISCRETE ALGORITHMS Knuth, D. E. SIAM. 1993: 41–43
  • THE PROBLEM OF COMPATIBLE REPRESENTATIVES SIAM JOURNAL ON DISCRETE MATHEMATICS Knuth, D. E., Raghunathan, A. 1992; 5 (3): 422-427
  • RANDOMIZED INCREMENTAL CONSTRUCTION OF DELAUNAY AND VORONOI DIAGRAMS ALGORITHMICA Guibas, L. J., Knuth, D. E., SHARIR, M. 1992; 7 (4): 381-413
  • Convolution polynomials Mathematica Journal Knuth, D. E. 1992; 2 (4): 67-78
  • Context-free multilanguages Theoretical Studies in Computer Science Knuth, D. E. Academic Press. 1992: 1–13
  • Literate Programming Knuth, D. E. CSLI Publications. 1992
  • THEORY AND PRACTICE THEORETICAL COMPUTER SCIENCE Knuth, D. E. 1991; 90 (1): 1-15
  • EFFICIENT REPRESENTATION OF PERM GROUPS COMBINATORICA Knuth, D. E. 1991; 11 (1): 33-43
  • Textbook examples of recursion Artificial Intelligence and Mathematical Theory of Computation Knuth, D. E. Academic Press. 1991: 207–229
  • ADDITION MACHINES SIAM JOURNAL ON COMPUTING FLOYD, R. W., Knuth, D. E. 1990; 19 (2): 329-340
  • NESTED SATISFIABILITY ACTA INFORMATICA Knuth, D. E. 1990; 28 (1): 1-6
  • Stable husbands Random Structures and Algorithms Knuth, D. E., Motwani, R., Pittel, B. G. 1990; 1 (1): 1-14
  • Mathematics for the analysis of algorithms Knuth, D. E., Greene, D. H. Birkhauser Boston. 1990
  • THE GENESIS OF ATTRIBUTE GRAMMARS INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP ON ATTRIBUTE GRAMMARS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS ( WAGA ) Knuth, D. E. SPRINGER-VERLAG BERLIN. 1990: 1–12
  • RANDOMIZED INCREMENTAL CONSTRUCTION OF DELAUNAY AND VORONOI DIAGRAMS 17TH INTERNATIONAL COLLOQUIUM ON AUTOMATA, LANGUAGES AND PROGRAMMING ( ICALP 90 ) Guibas, L. J., Knuth, D. E., SHARIR, M. SPRINGER-VERLAG. 1990: 414–431
  • THE 1ST CYCLES IN AN EVOLVING GRAPH DISCRETE MATHEMATICS Flajolet, P., Knuth, D. E., Pittel, B. 1989; 75 (1-3): 167-215
  • AMS EULER - A NEW TYPEFACE FOR MATHEMATICS SCHOLARLY PUBLISHING Knuth, D. E., Zapf, H. 1989; 20 (3): 131-157
  • A RECURRENCE RELATED TO TREES PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY Knuth, D. E., Pittel, B. 1989; 105 (2): 335-349
  • THE POWER OF A PRIME THAT DIVIDES A GENERALIZED BINOMIAL COEFFICIENT JOURNAL FUR DIE REINE UND ANGEWANDTE MATHEMATIK Knuth, D. E., Wilf, H. S. 1989; 396: 212-219
  • A NOTE ON STRATEGY ELIMINATION IN BIMATRIX GAMES OPERATIONS RESEARCH LETTERS Knuth, D. E., Papadimitriou, C. H., Tsitsiklis, J. N. 1988; 7 (3): 103-107
  • DIGITAL HALFTONES BY DOT DIFFUSION ACM TRANSACTIONS ON GRAPHICS Knuth, D. E. 1987; 6 (4): 245-273
  • COMPUTER-SCIENCE CONSIDERATIONS BYTE VOSE, G. M., Williams, G., Knuth, D. 1986; 11 (2): 169-?
  • THE IBM-650 - AN APPRECIATION FROM THE FIELD ANNALS OF THE HISTORY OF COMPUTING Knuth, D. E. 1986; 8 (1): 50-55
  • Computer Modern Typefaces Computers & Typesetting Knuth, D. E. Addison-Wesley. 1986; E
  • METAFONT: The Program Computers & Typesetting Knuth, D. E. Addison-Wesley. 1986; D
  • TeX: The Program Computers & Typesetting Knuth, D. E. Addison-Wesley. 1986; B
  • EFFICIENT BALANCED CODES IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION THEORY Knuth, D. E. 1986; 32 (1): 51-53
  • DECIPHERING A LINEAR CONGRUENTIAL ENCRYPTION IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INFORMATION THEORY Knuth, D. E. 1985; 31 (1): 49-52
  • Semi-optimal bases for linear dependencies Linear and Multilinear Algebra Knuth, D. E. 1985; 17 (1): 1-4
  • ALGORITHMIC THINKING AND MATHEMATICAL THINKING AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL MONTHLY Knuth, D. E. 1985; 92 (3): 170-181
  • OPTIMAL PREPAGING AND FONT CACHING ACM TRANSACTIONS ON PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES AND SYSTEMS FUCHS, D. R., Knuth, D. E. 1985; 7 (1): 62-79
  • LESSONS LEARNED FROM METAFONT + USE OF COMPUTERS IN TYPE DESIGN VISIBLE LANGUAGE Knuth, D. E. 1985; 19 (1): 34-53
  • DYNAMIC HUFFMAN CODING JOURNAL OF ALGORITHMS Knuth, D. E. 1985; 6 (2): 163-180
  • AN ANALYSIS OF OPTIMUM CACHING JOURNAL OF ALGORITHMS Knuth, D. E. 1985; 6 (2): 181-199
  • THE TOILET PAPER PROBLEM AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL MONTHLY Knuth, D. E. 1984; 91 (8): 465-470
  • THE COMPLEXITY OF SONGS COMMUNICATIONS OF THE ACM Knuth, D. E. 1984; 27 (4): 344-348
  • THE DISTRIBUTION OF CONTINUED-FRACTION APPROXIMATIONS JOURNAL OF NUMBER THEORY Knuth, D. E. 1984; 19 (3): 443-448
  • AN ALGORITHM FOR BROWNIAN ZEROS COMPUTING Knuth, D. E. 1984; 33 (1): 89-94
  • HUFFMAN-ALGORITHM VIA ALGEBRA JOURNAL OF COMBINATORIAL THEORY SERIES A Knuth, D. E. 1982; 32 (2): 216-224
  • A PERMANENT INEQUALITY AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL MONTHLY Knuth, D. E. 1981; 88 (10): 731-740
  • Supernatural numbers The Mathematical Gardner Knuth, D. E. Wadsworth International. 1981: 310–325
  • VERIFICATION OF LINK-LEVEL PROTOCOLS BIT Knuth, D. E. 1981; 21 (1): 31-36
  • The early development of programming languages A History of Computing in the Twentieth Century Knuth, D. E., Trabb Pardo, L. Academic Press. 1980: 197–273
  • The letter S Mathematical Intelligencer Knuth, D. E. 1980; 2: 114-122
  • LEXICOGRAPHIC PERMUTATIONS WITH RESTRICTIONS DISCRETE APPLIED MATHEMATICS Knuth, D. E. 1979; 1 (1-2): 117-125
  • INHOMOGENEOUS SORTING INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTER & INFORMATION SCIENCES Anisimov, A. V., Knuth, D. E. 1979; 8 (4): 255-260
  • TRIVIAL ALGORITHM WHOSE ANALYSIS ISNT JOURNAL OF COMPUTER AND SYSTEM SCIENCES JONASSEN, A. T., Knuth, D. E. 1978; 16 (3): 301-322
  • The expected linearity of a simple equivalence algorithm Theoretical Computer Science Knuth, D. E., Schonhage, A. 1978; 6: 281-315
  • COMPLEXITY RESULTS FOR BANDWIDTH MINIMIZATION SIAM JOURNAL ON APPLIED MATHEMATICS Garey, M. R., GRAHAM, R. L., Johnson, D. S., Knuth, D. E. 1978; 34 (3): 477-495
  • AVERAGE TIME FOR CARRY PROPAGATION PROCEEDINGS OF THE KONINKLIJKE NEDERLANDSE AKADEMIE VAN WETENSCHAPPEN SERIES A-MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES Knuth, D. E. 1978; 81 (2): 238-242
  • IDENTITIES FROM PARTITION INVOLUTIONS FIBONACCI QUARTERLY Knuth, D. E., Paterson, M. S. 1978; 16 (3): 198-212
  • DELETIONS THAT PRESERVE RANDOMNESS IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON SOFTWARE ENGINEERING Knuth, D. E. 1977; 3 (5): 351-359
  • Notes on generalized Dedekind sums Acta Arithmetica Knuth, D. E. 1977; 33: 297-325
  • Fast pattern matching in strings SIAM Journal on Computing Knuth, D. E., Morris, J. H., Pratt, V. R. 1977; 6: 323-350
  • GENERALIZATION OF DIJKSTRAS ALGORITHM INFORMATION PROCESSING LETTERS Knuth, D. E. 1977; 6 (1): 1-5
  • ALGORITHMS SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Knuth, D. E. 1977; 236 (4): 63-?
  • Analysis of a simple factorization algorithm Theoretical Computer Science Knuth, D. E., Trabb Pardo, L. 1976; 3: 321-348
  • The complexity of nonuniform random number generation Algorithms and Complexity Knuth, D. E., Yao, A. C. Academic Press. 1976: 357–428
  • ESTIMATING EFFICIENCY OF BACKTRACK PROGRAMS MATHEMATICS OF COMPUTATION Knuth, D. E. 1975; 29 (129): 121-136
  • ANALYSIS OF SUBTRACTIVE ALGORITHM FOR GREATEST COMMON DIVISORS PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Yao, A. C., Knuth, D. E. 1975; 72 (12): 4720-4722

    Abstract

    The sum of all partial quotients in the regular continued fraction expansions of m/n, for 1

    View details for Web of Science ID A1975BB20500009

    View details for PubMedID 16592294

    View details for PubMedCentralID PMC388801

  • ANALYSIS OF ALPHA-BETA PRUNING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE Knuth, D. E., Moore, R. W. 1975; 6 (4): 293-326
  • RANDOM MATROIDS DISCRETE MATHEMATICS Knuth, D. E. 1975; 12 (4): 341-358
  • ORDERED HASH TABLES COMPUTER JOURNAL AMBLE, O., Knuth, D. E. 1974; 17 (2): 135-142
  • Structured programming with go to statements Computing Surveys Knuth, D. E. 1974; 6 (4): 261-301
  • RECURRENCE RELATIONS BASED ON MINIMIZATION JOURNAL OF MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS AND APPLICATIONS Fredman, M. L., Knuth, D. E. 1974; 48 (2): 534-559
  • COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ITS RELATION TO MATHEMATICS AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL MONTHLY Knuth, D. E. 1974; 81 (4): 323-343
  • Enumeration of plane partitions Journal of Combinatorial Theory Series A Bender, E. A., Knuth, D. E. 1972; 13 (1): 40-54
  • An empirical study of FORTRAN programs SOFTWARE--Practice and Experience Knuth, D. E. 1971; 1: 105-133
  • Simple word problems in universal algebras Compututational Problems in Abstract Algebra Knuth, D. E., Bendix, P. B. Pergamon. 1970: 263–297
  • Permutations, matrices, and generalized Young tableaux Pacific Journal of Mathematics Knuth, D. E. 1970; 34: 709-727
  • Finite semifields and projective planes Journal of Algebra Knuth, D. E. 1965; 2 (2): 182-217
  • On the translation of languages from left to right Information and Control Knuth, D. E. 1965; 8 (5): 607-639
  • Minimizing drum latency time Journal of the ACM Knuth, D. E. 1961; 8 (2): 119-150
  • The potrzebie system of weights and measures MAD Magazine Knuth, D. 1957; 1 (33): 36-37