Fred Brooks

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Frederick Phillips Brooks, Jr.

Born	April 19, 1931 Durham, North Carolina
Field	Computer Science
Institution	IBM University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Known for	OS/360
Notable prizes	Turing Award

Frederick Phillips Brooks, Jr. (born April 19, 1931) is a software engineer and computer scientist, best-known for managing the development of OS/360, then later writing candidly about the process in his seminal book The Mythical Man-Month. "It is a very humbling experience to make a multi-million-dollar mistake, but it is also very memorable." Brooks received a Turing Award in 1999 and many other awards.

Born in Durham, North Carolina, he attended Duke University, graduating in 1953, and he received a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics (Computer Science) from Harvard University in 1956. Howard Aiken was his advisor.

Brooks joined IBM in 1956, working in Endicott, Poughkeepsie and Yorktown, New York. He worked on the architecture of the Stretch (a $10m scientific supercomputer for the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory) and Harvest computers and then was manager for the development of the System/360 family of computers and the OS/360 software they ran.

It was in The Mythical Man-Month that Brooks made the now-famous statement: "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later." This has since come to be known as "Brooks' law." In addition to The Mythical Man-Month, Brooks is known for No Silver Bullet, an essay on software engineering.

He is known for using the crutch-phrase "very good" when a conversation is ending or he can no longer contribute.

In 1965, Brooks left IBM to found the Department of Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and chaired it for 20 years. As of 2006 he was still engaged in active research there, primarily in virtual worlds and molecular graphics. In January 2005 he gave the IEE/BCS annual Turing Lecture in London on the subject of "Collaboration and Telecollaboration in Design". In 1994 he was inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery.

A "20th anniversary" revised edition of The Mythical Man-Month was published in 1995.

He is also a confessional Christian who is active with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students.^[1]

Contents 1 Bibliography 2 Service and Memberships 3 Awards 4 External links 5 See also 6 References

[edit] Bibliography

• Brooks, Frederick P.; Kenneth Iverson (1963). Automatic Data Processing. 
• Brooks, Frederick P.; Kenneth Iverson (1965). Automatic Data Processing, System/360 Edition. ISBN 0-471-10605-4. 
• Brooks, Frederick P. (1975, 2nd ed. 1995). The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering. ISBN 0-201-83595-9. 
• Brooks, Frederick P. (1987). No Silver Bullet: Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering.  (reprinted in the second edition of The Mythical Man-Month)
• Brooks, Frederick P.; G. A. Blaauw (1997). Computer Architecture: Concepts and Evolution. ISBN 0-201-10557-8. 

[edit] Service and Memberships

He has served on a number of U.S. national boards and committees.^[2]

• National Science Board (1987-1992)

• Defense Science Board (1983-86)

• Chairman, Military Software Task Force (1985-87)

• Member, Computers in Simulation and Training Task Force (1986-87)

• Member, Artificial Intelligence Task Force (1983-84)

[edit] Awards

In chronological order, from ^[2]

• Eckert-Mauchly Award, Association for Computing Machinery and The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers–Computer Society (2004)

• Member, National Academy of Science (2001)
• Fellow Award, The Computer Museum History Center (2001)

• A.M. Turing Award, Association for Computing Machinery (1999)

• CyberEdge Journal Annual Sutherland Award (April, 1997)

• Bower Award and Prize in Science, Franklin Institute (1995)

• Allen Newell Award, Association for Computing Machinery (1994)

• Fellow (initial inductee), Association for Computer Machinery (1994)

• Distinguished Fellow, British Computer Society (1994)

• Foreign Member, Royal Academy of Engineering, U.K. (1994)

• Foreign Member, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (1991)

• John von Neumann Medal, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (1993)

• Honorary Doctor of Technical Science, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich (1991)

• Harry Goode Memorial Award, American Federation of Information Processing Societies (1989)

• National Medal of Technology (1985)

• McDowell Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Computer Art, IEEE Computer Group (1970)

• Distinguished Service Award, Association for Computing Machinery (1987)

• Thomas Jefferson Award, UNC-Chapel Hill (1986)

• Member, National Academy of Engineering (1976)

• Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1976)

• Guggenheim Fellowship for studies on computer architecture and human factors of computer systems, Cambridge University, England (1975)

• Computer Pioneer Award, IEEE Computer Society (1982)

• Computer Sciences Distinguished Information Services Award, Information Technology Professionals (1970)

• Fellow, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (1968)

• Order of the Golden Fleece, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

[edit] External links

• Fred Brooks' homepage

[edit] See also

• Gene Amdahl
• Gerrit Blaauw
• Simulated reality

[edit] References

1. ^ Faculty Biography at UNC.
2. ^ ^{a b} Home Page

Persondata
NAME	Brooks, Frederick Phillips, Jr.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Computer scientist
DATE OF BIRTH	April 19, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH	Durham, North Carolina
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH