Computer Pioneer.

John Vincent Atanasoff invented the first automatic digital computer, but before he perfected his design, others had developed computers that were more sophisticated than his, and his contribution to computer technology was nearly forgotten.

Early Years.

Atanasoff became interested in calculating at the age of nine, when his father, an electrical engineer, gave him a slide rule. After receiving a B.S. in electrical engineering at the University of Florida in 1925, Atanasoff earned an M.A. in mathematics at Iowa State University (1926) and a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Wisconsin (1930).

Inventing a Computer.

Atanasoff encountered the limits of existing calculating instruments as he worked on the extensive calculations for his doctoral dissertation on the electrical properties of helium. As a professor of mathematics and physics at Iowa State, he began to work on an improved calculating machine during the...