Dr. Peter Naur Wins 2005 ACM Turing Award

I thought this announcement that Dr. Peter Naur has been named the winner of the 2005 ACM Turing award might interest readers here. From the press release:

The award is for Naur's pioneering work on defining the Algol 60 programming language. Algol 60 is the model for many later programming languages, including those that are indispensable software engineering tools today. ...

In 2002, former Turing Award winner Edsger Dijkstra characterized the development of Algol 60 as "an absolute miracle" that signaled the birth of what he called "computing science" because it showed the first ways in which automatic computing could and should become a topic of academic concern. The development of Algol 60 was the result of an exceptionally talented group of people, including several who were later named Turing Award winners. ...

Dr. Naur was instrumental in establishing software engineering as a discipline. He made pioneering contributions to methodologies for writing correct programs through his work on assertions that enable programmers to state their assumptions, and on structured programming. "His work, though formal and precise, displays an exceptional understanding of the limits and uses of formalism and precision," said Gray. Through these activities, and his development of an influential computer science curriculum, Dr. Naur contributed fundamental components of today's computing knowledge and skills.

It's tempting not to quote the whole thing.

And about the award itself:

The Turing Award, considered the "Nobel Prize of Computing" was first awarded in 1966, and is named for British mathematician Alan M. Turing. ... Since its inception, the Turing Award has honored the computer scientists and engineers who created the systems and underlying theoretical foundations that have propelled the information technology industry.

Dan

P.S.
Thank you to the reader who alerted me that I had the wrong year on this announcement. Even though the award was given in 2006, Naur was awarded the 2005 Turing award.