Alice R. Burks

Born August 20, 1920, East Cleveland, Ohio. With her husband, Arthur W. Burks, she wrote extensively about the early history of the electronic computers, especially on the original work of John Vincent Atanasoff.

Education: BA, mathematics, University of Pennsylvania, 1944; MS, educational psychology, University of Michigan, 1957.

Professional Experience: writer and author.

Honors and Awards: University of Michigan Press Award, 1989, for The First Electronic Computer: The Atanasoff Story.

Burks did her undergraduate work at Oberlin College, on a competitive mathematics scholarship, and at the University of Pennsylvania, where she received her BA in mathematics in 1944. She earned her MS in educational psychology at the University of Michigan in 1957. She has assisted her husband in the writing of his book, Chance, Cause, Reason, and several of his articles. Alice Burks is also the author of a young people's novel.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Significant Publications

Burks, Alice Rowe, Leela and the Leopard Hunt, Methuen, London, 1983.

Burks, Alice Rowe, and Arthur W. Burks, The First Electronic Computer: The Atanasoff Story, Univ. Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, Mich., 1988.

Burks, Arthur W., and Alice R. Burks, "The ENIAC: First General-Purpose Electronic Computer," Ann. Hist. Comp., Vol. 3, No. 4, 1981, pp. 310-399.

UPDATES

Alice Burks died November 21, 2017. (THVV, 2023)