View source for Biography:Julian Bigelow

{{Short description|American computer engineer}}
[[File:Julian Bigelow.jpg|thumb|Julian Bigelow at The Princeton Institute for Advanced Study (Left to right: Julian Bigelow, [[Biography:Herman Goldstine|Herman Goldstine]], J. Robert Oppenheimer, and John von Neumann)]]
'''Julian Bigelow''' (March 19, 1913 – February 17, 2003) was a pioneering American computer engineer.
==Life==
Bigelow was born in 1913 in Nutley, New Jersey.<ref>Staff. [https://library.ias.edu/files/pdfs/hs/cos.pdf#page=58 ''A COMMUNITY OF SCHOLARS: The Institute for Advanced Study Faculty and Members 1930-1980''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111124234612/http://library.ias.edu/files/pdfs/hs/cos.pdf#page=58 |date=2011-11-24 }}, p. 58. Institute for Advanced Study, 1980. Accessed November 20, 2015. "Bigelow, Julian Himely NS, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics Born 1913 Nutley, NJ."</ref> He obtained a master's degree at the [[Organization:Massachusetts Institute of Technology|Massachusetts Institute of Technology]], studying [[Electrical engineering|electrical engineering]] and [[Mathematics|mathematics]]. During [[Social:World War II|World War II]], he assisted [[Biography:Norbert Wiener|Norbert Wiener]] in his research on automated [[Engineering:Fire-control system|fire control]] for anti-aircraft guns, leading to the development of the so-called [[Wiener filter]].

Bigelow coauthored (with Wiener and Arturo Rosenblueth) one of the founding papers on [[Cybernetics|cybernetics]] and [[Philosophy:Teleology|modern teleology]], "Behavior, Purpose and Teleology" (1943), which was published in ''Philosophy of Science''. This paper mulled over the way mechanical, biological, and electronic systems could communicate and interact. This paper instigated the formation of the Teleological Society and later the [[Macy conferences]]. Bigelow was an active member of both organizations.  He was a visiting scholar for many years at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.<ref>[http://www.ias.edu/people/cos/ Institute for Advanced Study: A Community of Scholars]</ref>

When [[Biography:John von Neumann|John von Neumann]] sought to build one of the first digital computers at the Institute for Advanced Study, he hired Bigelow in 1946 as his "engineer," on Wiener's recommendation. The computer Bigelow built following von Neumann's design is called the IAS machine, although it was also called the MANIAC, a name that was later transferred to the successful clone of this machine at Los Alamos. Because von Neumann did not patent the IAS and wrote about it freely, 15 clones of the IAS were soon built. Nearly all general-purpose computers subsequently built are recognizable as influenced by the IAS machine's design.

Bigelow died on February 17, 2003, in Princeton, New Jersey.<ref>{{cite news |title= Julian Bigelow, 89, Mathematician and Computer Pioneer |author= John Markoff |date= February 22, 2003 |newspaper= {{wipe|New York Times}} |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/22/business/julian-bigelow-89-mathematician-and-computer-pioneer.html }}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |author= George B. Dyson |year= 1997 |title= Darwin among the Machines |publisher=  Da Capo Press |isbn= 978-0-7382-0030-9 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=UIcix3un6PEC |}}
* {{cite news |author= John Markoff |date= February 22, 2003 |title= Julian Bigelow, 89, Mathematician and Computer Pioneer |publisher=  NY Times Press |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/22/business/julian-bigelow-89-mathematician-and-computer-pioneer.html |}}
* {{cite book |author= George Dyson |year= 2012 |title= Turing's Cathedral |publisher= Pantheon Books |isbn= 978-0-375-42277-5 |url= https://archive.org/details/turingscathedral0000dyso |url-access= registration }}

==External links==
* {{cite web |title= George Dyson at the birth of the computer |author= George Dyson |work= TED talks |date= March 2003 |url= http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/george_dyson_at_the_birth_of_the_computer.html |accessdate= May 26, 2011 }}
* {{cite web |title= Computer Oral History Collection, 1969-1973, 1977 |author= Richard R. Mertz |work=  Smithsonian National Museum of American History |date= January 20, 1971|url= http://invention.smithsonian.org/downloads/fa_cohc_tr_bige710120.pdf |accessdate= April 9, 2012}}


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[[Category:American computer scientists]]



{{Sourceattribution|Julian Bigelow}}