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William Kahan
Computer scientist

William Kahan

Famoose for

Shaping reliable floating-point arithmetic in computers.

Kahan summation · Hewlett-Packard

Born
5 June 1933
Birthplace
Toronto

More people

Ada LovelaceRecognising what a programmable machine could do beyond arithmetic.Alan TuringHelping break Enigma and laying foundations for computer science.Grace HopperHelping make computer programming readable in English-like language.

William Kahan

William Kahan is a Canadian mathematician and computer scientist who received the 1989 Turing Award.

Early life

Education

Earned mathematics degrees at the University of Toronto, completing his doctorate in 1958.

Career

  1. Academic work

    Berkeley

    Became a professor of mathematics and electrical engineering and computer sciences.

  2. 1985

    Arithmetic standard

    Played a leading role in IEEE 754.

  3. 1989

    Turing Award

    Was recognised for numerical analysis.

Contributions

Kahan summation

Developed a method that reduces accumulated rounding error when adding numbers.

Hewlett-Packard

Helped improve algorithms for scientific calculators.

Beyond research

Numerical education

Has argued for better public and professional understanding of floating-point arithmetic, explaining why apparently minor rounding decisions can undermine computer calculations.

Sources & photo creditBiography and career ↗Biographical references ↗

Original photograph. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.

Photo: George Bergman. CC BY-SA 4.0 · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.