Kristen Nygaard
Kristen Nygaard (August 27, 1926 - August 10, 2002) was a Norwegian mathematician, computer programming language pioneer and politician. He was born in Oslo and died of a heart attack in 2002.
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Internationally he is acknowledged as the co-inventor of
object-oriented programming and the programming language
Simula with Ole-Johan Dahl in the 1960s.
The computer systems that form the foundation of the modern information
society are among the most complex things humans have created. Through his ground-breaking research Nygaard made it possible to manage that complexity.
Nygaard got his master's degree in mathematics at the University of Oslo in 1956. 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).
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). 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.
Together with Ole-Johan Dahl he developed SIMULA I (1961-1965) and SIMULA 67 - the first object-oriented programming languages, introducing the concepts upon which all later
object-oriented programming languages are built: objects,
classeses, inheritance, virtual quantities and
multi-threaded (quasi-parallel) program execution.
He did research for Norwegian trade unions on planning,
control, and data processing, all evaluated in light of the objectives
of organised labour (1971-1973, working together with
Olav Terje Bergo). His other research and development work included the
social impact of computer technology and the
general system description language DELTA (1973-1975, working with
Erik Holbaek-Hanssen and Petter Haandlykken).
Nygaard was a professor in Aarhus, Denmark
(1975-1976) and then became professor emeritus in
Oslo (part-time from 1977, full time 1984-1996).
His work in Aarhus
and Oslo included research and education in
system development
and the social impact of computer technology, and became the
foundation of
the Scandinavian School in System Development, which is closely linked
to the field of Participatory Design.
In June 1990 he received an honorary doctorate from
Lund University, Sweden, and in June 1991 he became
the first person to be given an honorary doctorate by
Aalborg University, Denmark. He became a member of the
Norwegian Academy of Science.
In October 1990 Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility awarded him its
Norbert Wiener Prize for responsibility in social and
professional work.
In 1999 he became - together with Dahl - the first
to receive the Rosing Prize. This new prize is
awarded by the Norwegian Data Association for exceptional
professional achievements.
In June 2000 he was awarded an Honorary Fellowship for
"his originating of object technology concepts" by the
Object Management Group, the
international standardisation organisation
within object-orientation.
In November 2001 he and Dahl were
awarded the IEEE John von Neumann Medal by the
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers "For the introduction of the concepts underlying
object-oriented programming through the design and implementation
of SIMULA 67".
In February 2002 he was given, once more together with Ole-Johan Dahl, the 2001 A. M. Turing Award by the
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), with the citation:
"For ideas fundamental to the emergence of object oriented programming, through their design of the programming languages Simula I and Simula 67."
In August 2000 he was made Commander of the Order of Saint Olav by the King of Norway.
Beginning in 1976 he was engaged in the development and
(since 1986) the implementation of the general
object-oriented programming language BETA (together with
Bent Bruun Kristensen, Ole Lehrmann Madsen and
Birger Moeller-Pedersen). The language is now available on a
wide range of computers.
Nygaard was in the first half of the 1980s chairman of the
steering committee of the Scandinavian research program
SYDPOL (System Development and Profession Oriented Languages),
coordinating research and supporting
working groups in system development, language research
and artificial intelligence. Also in the 1980s, he was chairman
of the steering committee for the Cost-13
(European Common Market Commission)-financed
research project on the extensions of profession-oriented languages necessary when artificial intelligence and
information technology are becoming part of professional work.
Nygaard's research from 1995-1999 was related to
distributed systems. He was the leader of
General Object-Oriented Distributed Systems (GOODS), a three-year
Norwegian Research Council-supported project starting in
1997, aiming at enriching object-oriented languages and
system development methods by new basic
concepts that make it possible to describe the relation between
layered and/or distributed programs and the hardware and
people carrying out these programs.
The GOODS team also included
Haakon Bryhni, Dag Sjøberg and Ole Smørdal.
Nygaard's final research interests were studies of the
introductory teaching of programming, and
the creation of a process-oriented conceptual platform for
informatics. These subjects are to be developed in a new research
project called COOL (Comprehensive Object-Oriented Learning) together
with a number of international test sites. He was giving lectures and
courses on these subjects in Norway and elsewhere. In November
1999 he became chair of an advisory committee on
Broadband Communication for the
Norwegian Department for Municipal and Regional Affairs.
In 1984 and 1985 Nygaard was chairman of the Informatics Committee of the University of Oslo, and active in the design of the university's plan for developing research, education and computing and communication facilities at all faculties of the university.
He was the first chairman of the Environment Protection Committee of the Norwegian Association for the Protection of Nature.
He was for 10 years (in the 1970s) Norwegian representative in the OECD activities on information technology. He has been a member of the Research Committee of the Norwegian Federation of Trade Unions, and cooperated with unions in a number of countries.
He was for several years engaged in running an experimental social institution trying new ways of creating humane living conditions for socially outcast alcoholics.
Nygaard was active in Norwegian politics. In the mid- and late 1960s he was a member of the National Executive Committee of the Norwegian liberal party Venstre, and chair of that party's Strategy Committee. During the intense political fight before the 1972 referendum on whether Norway should become a member of the European Common Market (later the European Union), he worked as coordinator for the many youth organisations that worked against membership.
From 1971 to 2001 Nygaard was a member of the Labour Party, and he was a member of committees on research policies in that party.
In November 1988, he became chair of the Information Committee on Norway and the EEC, in August 1990 reorganised as Nei til EU (No to European Union Membership for Norway, literally "No to EU"), an organisation disseminating information about Norway's relation to the Common Market, and coordinating the efforts to keep Norway outside. Nei til EU became the largest political organisation in Norway (145.000 members in 1994, in a population of 4 million). Nygaard worked with Anne Enger Lahnstein, leader of the anti-E.U. Senterpartiet (Center Party), in this campaign. In the referendum on November 28, 1994, "Nei til EU" succeeded: 52.2% of the electorate voted "No", and the voter participation was the highest ever in Norway's history - 88.8%.
He resigned as chair in 1995, and was later the chair of the organisation's strategy committee and member of its Council.
In 1996 and 1997 Nygaard was the coordinator of the efforts to establish The European Anti-Maastricht Movement (TEAM), a cooperative network between national organisations opposing the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and the Maastricht Treaty in European countries within and outside the EU. TEAM was successfully started March 3, 1997.
Kristen Nygaard married Johanna Nygaard in 1951.
Johanna Nygaard worked at
the Norwegian Agency for Aid to Developing
Countries. She specialised for a number of years in recruiting and
giving administrative support to specialists working in
East Africa.
Johanna and Kristen had three children and seven grandchildren.
Object-oriented programming
Other Activities
Family
Source
External links