Edgar Frank Codd is best know for his work on databases, specifically the invention of the first abstract model for database management.

Edgar Frank Codd was born in 1923 in Portland, England. In 1942, after his schooling, Codd joined the Royal Air Force where he became a captain. At the end of the World War II Codd resumed his academic career. In 1948 he was awarded a B.A. in mathematics from Oxford University, which, due to the peculiar rules of the university, was subsequently converted into an M.A.

After the completion of his degree Codd moved to the United States where he obtained a position as an instructor in mathematics at the University of Tennessee. He remained in this role for only one year before he decided to join the IBM Corporation as a mathematician and programmer to work on the SSEC (Selective Sequence Electronic Computer) project in New...