Azger Dykstra

Edsger Wybe Dijkstra (Dutch: [ˈɛtsxər ˈʋibə ˈdɛikstra], May 11, 1930 - August 6, 2002), also translated as Edsger Wybe Dijkstra, was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, a computer scientist. He was the first scientist in the Netherlands to major in programming. He won the Turing Award in 1972, and later won the AFIPS Harry Goode Memorial Award in 1974 and the ACM SIGCSE Outstanding Contribution to Computer Science Education and Teaching Award in 1989. In 2002, shortly before his death, he won the ACM PODC (Principles of Distributed Computing) Most Influential Paper Award in recognition of his contribution to the self-stabilization of program computing in the distributed field. In memory of him, this annual award was later renamed the "Dijkstra Award". He once proposed the "GOTO harmful theory", semaphores and PV primitives (passeren vrijgeven), which solved the "dining philosophers problem".