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Computer Laboratory,
University of Cambridge |
Two distinguished British computer scientists David John Wheeler and Roger Michael Needham were born on February 9 in 1927 and 1935, respectively. Both were professors at the University of Cambridge, Computer Laboratory (formerly Mathematical Laboratory) and fellows of the Royal Society. David Wheeler completed world's first Ph.D. in computer science in 1951 and later became the doctoral advisor of Roger Needham. David Wheeler is known for his invention of "subroutine", also known as Wheeler jump, and his work on EDSAC. Roger Needham was famous for the Burrows-Abadi-Needham (BAN) logic for authentication, the Needham-Schroeder security protocol, capability systems and local area network including the Cambridge Ring, which was copied by Apple and named as AppleTalk. The Needham-Schroeder protocol became the basis of the Kerberos authentication and key exchange system. Needham had served as the head of the Computer Laboratory for 17 years and then set up the Microsoft's Research Laboratory at Cambridge in 1997. Needham was knighted as a CBE in 2001. Needham passed away in 2003 and Wheeler in 2004.
