Stephen Wolfram



In recognition of his early work in physics and computing, Wolfram became in 1981 the youngest recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship. Late in 1981 Wolfram then set out on an ambitious new direction in science aimed at understanding the origins of complexity in nature. Wolfram's first key idea was to use computer experiments to study the behavior of simple computer programs known as cellular automata. And starting in 1982, this allowed him to make a series of startling discoveries about the origins of complexity. The papers Wolfram published quickly had a major impact, and laid the groundwork for the emerging field that Wolfram called "complex systems research."



Wolfram began the development of Mathematica in late 1986. The first version of Mathematica was released on June 23, 1988, and was immediately hailed as a major advance in computing. In the years that followed, the popularity of Mathematica grew rapidly, and Wolfram Research became established as a world leader in the software industry, widely recognized for excellence in both technology and business. Currently at Version 9, Mathematica has become the standard software language and environment for scientific, technical, and algorithmic computation, and algorithmic software development.



Building on Mathematica and the ideas of A New Kind of Science, Wolfram embarked on his most ambitious project to date: building a system that would make as much of the world's knowledge as possible computable and accessible to everyone. The release of Wolfram|Alpha in May 2009 was widely viewed as a historic step forward, that has defined a new dimension for computation, and is now an important tool used by millions of people every day.

Wolfram has been president and CEO of Wolfram Research since its founding in 1987. In addition to his business leadership, Wolfram is deeply involved in the development of the company's technology, and personally oversees the functional design of the company's core products.



Courtesy of Stephen Wolfram

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