Stephen Wolfram

Born on 29 August 1959 in London, Stephen Wolfram is a physicist who created software including Mathematica and Wolfram|Alpha. Wolfram published his first scientific paper at age 15 and earned his PhD in theoretical physics at 20. He earned a coveted MacArthur Fellowship in 1981. Seven years later Wolfram started selling a program he developed called Mathematica, a mathematical computation program that continues to be used today by many physicists, engineers, and computer scientists. In 2009 he released Wolfram|Alpha, a “computational knowledge engine” that answers questions through a vast database. Along with developing software, Wolfram has led research that delves into the complexity of nature. He argues that to understand complex processes, scientists should study simple computer programs called cellular automata. (Photo credit: Stephen Wolfram’s PR team/Stephen Faust, CC BY-SA 3.0)

Date in History: 29 August 1959