Charles Simonyi

Charles Simonyi
The Origins and Impact of VisiCalc

 

Charles Simonyi is co-founder of Intentional Software Corporation (ISC) along with his business partner, Gregor Kiczales. The company was created in August 2002.

Simonyi was employed by Microsoft Corporation from 1981, where he held titles of Director of Application Development, Chief Architect, and most recently, Distinguished Engineer. While at Microsoft, Simonyi hired and managed teams that developed Microsoft Multiplan, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and other best selling software applications.

Simonyi worked at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) from 1972-1980 where he created the first WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) text editor called Bravo. Born in Budapest, Hungary, Simonyi earned his B.S. in engineering mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley, and a doctorate in computer science from Stanford University. He received a honorary doctorate from the University of Pecs in Hungary, in 2001.

Simonyi has been a member of the National Academy of Engineering since 1997, elected for his contributions to "widely used productivity software."

Simonyi has been also serving on the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton since 1998. He has endowed a chair for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, a chair for Theoretical Physics at the Institute for Advanced Study, among many other educational and charitable contributions.

Additional Information:
Charles Simonyi's Biography


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