Hi Troy,

Bill Aspray's John von Neumann and the Origins of Modern Computing, a deeply insightful and path breaking work of scholarship, in large part a biography, and much more. Andrew Hodges Alan Turing: The Enigma.  Leslie Berlin's The Man Behind the Microchip: Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley is a great bio on this influential physicist, engineer, and entrepreneur in IT.  (And sticking with  the Fairchild, Intel and Silicon Valley theme...) Arnold Thackray, David Brock, and Rachel Jones' Moore's Law: The Life of Gordon Moore, Silicon Valley's Quiet Revolutionary.   Agree what others have said on Waldrop's The Dream Machine, an excellent book by this top science journalist. And I very highly recommend Hunter's excellent biography on Herbert Simon.

Best, Jeff


  The Man behind the Microchip : Robert Noyce and the Invention of Silicon Valley
"Injustice wears the same harsh face wherever it shows itself."-Ralph Ellison

Jeffrey R. Yost, Ph.D.
Director, Charles Babbage Institute
Research Professor, Program in the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
 
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University of Minnesota
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On Thu, Sep 3, 2020 at 6:31 AM Troy Astarte <Troy.Astarte@newcastle.ac.uk> wrote:
Dear SIG-CIS, 

What is your favourite biography of a scientist or mathematician? I’m particularly interested in modern subjects and those who worked in computing/computer science. Ideally the book would cover the subject’s work in a reasonable level of technical detail as well as their life and the broader context in which they lived and worked. 

I ask because I am considering applying for funding for an essentially biographical project on a computer scientist and I would like to read some (more) biographies first. 

Best, 

Troy Astarte

School of Computing
Newcastle University

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