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For his invention of the closed subroutine, his architectural contributions to the ILLIAC, the Cambridge Ring, and computer testing.
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David John Wheeler was born in Birmingham, England, on the ninth of February 1927. He was awarded a scholarship at Trinity College Cambridge in 1945 and studied Mathematics, taking his BA in 1948.
He started computer work as an undergraduate in 1947, and his PhD titled " Automatic computing with the EDSAC" was granted in 1951. His wired in assembler of 1942 instructions handled mnemonic orders, decimal addresses, arbitrary location of routines and handling of "closed" subroutines, etc., allowing a simple system for users. This led to a Fellowship at Trinity College. He spent the next two years at the University of Illinois, helping design the programming system for the ORDVAC and ILLIAC.
Returning to Cambridge in 1953, he designed extensions to the EDSAC such as an index register, and the order code and programming system for the EDSAC 2. Since then he has worked on the Titan computer, (including extensions for online working), the Cambridge Ring, the CAP computer, data compression and security.
He has spent time at the Universities of Illinois; Sydney, Australia; and California. He has acted as a consultant to various organizations, including Bell Laboratories and Digital Equipment Corporation Western Research Laboratory.
He is Emeritus Professor of Computer Science at Cambridge University where he spent most of his career. He was elected a Fellow of the British Computing Society in 1970, of the Royal Society in 1983, and was awarded a Pioneer Medal of the IEEE in 1985.