Aaron Finerman

Born April 1, 1925, Bronx, N. Y, died April 5, 1994, Boca Raton, Fla.; 1950s computer scientist who has been recognized for his outstanding service to professional societies, to computer science education, and to computer center management.

Education: BS, civil engineering, College of the City of New York, 1948; SM, civil engineering, MIT, 1951; ScD, civil engineering, MIT, 1956.

Professional Experience: US Army, 1944-1946; Republic Aviation Corporation: Scientific Computing Group, 1956-1957, manager, Digital Computing and Data Processing Division, 1957-1961; State University of New York at Stony Brook: professor of engineering, director of the Computing Center, 1961-1969, professor of computer science, 1969-1977, chairman, Computer Science Department, 1975-1977; jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology: National Academy of Science senior post-doctoral fellow, 1968-1969, manager, Office of Computing and Information Services, 1971-1973, distinguished visiting scientist, 1990-1994; University of Michigan: director, Computing Center, 1978-1986, professor, Computer and Communications Sciences, 1978-1984, professor, electrical and computer engineering, 1979-1984, professor, electrical engineering and computer science, 1984-1990, special adviser on information technology, 1986-1990, professor emeritus, EECS, 1990-1994, director emeritus, Computing Center, 1990-1994; distinguished visiting professor, Computer Science and Engineering, Florida Atlantic University, 1989-1994; editor-in-chief, ACM Computing Reviews, 1987-1994; chairman, implementation committee, Software Patent Institute, 1992-1994.

Honors and Awards: President, SHARE, 1961; ACM Distinguished Service Award, 1981; fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1983; fellow, ACM, 1994.

Aaron Finerman entered the field of computing in 1954 while a graduate student at MIT, by using the Whirlwind computer. Finerman was active in the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) from 1957, and during that time served as the chairman of the editorial board, association treasurer, and council member. He also served as chairman of the Long Island Chapter, and chair of the Special Interest Group on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE). He served as the editor-in-chief of Computing Reviews from 1963 to 1967 and again from 1987 to 1994.

As the representative of ACM, Finerman was active in the American Federation of Information Processing Societies (AFIPS) for 10 years commencing in 1974, serving as a board member, member of the executive committee, and chair of the AFIPS publications committee. During this period he proposed, and was instrumental in obtaining approval of the AFIPS Board for the establishment of, the Annals of the History of Computing.

By invitation he visited over 30 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, speaking on the management of computing, software practices, education and training programs in computer science, the history of computing, and trends in computing.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Significant Publications

Finerman, A., ed., University Education in Computing Science, Academic Press, New York, Jan. 1968.

Finerman, A., "Thoughts on Managing the Computing Organization," INFOPOL 76 International Conference on Data Processing, 1976.

Finerman, A., "Computing Capabilities at United States Universities," Informatic, Vol. 11, No. 9, Sept. 1969, pp. 360-367.

Finerman, A., "Computing Capabilities at Western European Universities," Comm. ACM, Vol.9, No. 12, Dec. 1966, pp. 840-844.

Finerman, A., "Professionalism in the Computing Field," Comm. ACM, Vol. 18, No. Jan. 1975, pp. 4-9.

Finerman, A., and E. Koffman, "Education in Computer Science," Encyclopedia of Computer Science, 3rd ed., Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1993, pp. 493-501.

Finerman, A., and A. Ralston, "Undergraduate Programs in Computing Science in the Tradition of Liberal Education," IFIP World Conference on Computer Education, Vol. 2, Aug. 1970, pp. 195-199.