Mark
Dean
Inventor,
Computer Programmer (1957–)
Computer scientist and engineer
Mark Dean is credited with helping develop a number of landmark technologies,
including the color PC monitor, the Industry Standard Architecture system bus
and the first gigahertz chip.
Synopsis
Born in Jefferson City, Tennessee, in
1957, computer scientist and engineer Mark Dean helped develop a number of
landmark technologies for IBM, including the color PC monitor and the first
gigahertz chip. He holds three of the company's original nine patents. He also
invented the Industry Standard Architecture system bus with engineer Dennis
Moeller, allowing for computer plug-ins such as disk drives and printers.
Early Life and Education
Computer scientist and inventor Mark
Dean was born on March 2, 1957, in Jefferson City, Tennessee. Dean is credited
with helping to launch the personal computer age with work that made the
machines more accessible and powerful.
From an early age, Dean showed a love
for building things; as a young boy, Dean constructed a tractor from scratch
with the help of his father, a supervisor at the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Dean also excelled in many different areas, standing out as a gifted athlete and
an extremely smart student who graduated with straight A's from Jefferson City
High School. In 1979, he graduated at the top of his class at the University of
Tennessee, where he studied engineering.
Innovation with IBM
Not long after college, Dean landed a
job at IBM, a company he would become associated with for the duration of his
career. As an engineer, Dean proved to be a rising star at the company. Working
closely with a colleague, Dennis Moeller, Dean developed the new Industry
Standard Architecture (ISA) systems bus, a new system that allowed peripheral
devices like disk drives, printers and monitors to be plugged directly into
computers. The end result was more efficiency and better integration.
But his groundbreaking work didn't
stop there. Dean's research at IBM helped change the accessibility and power of
the personal computer. His work led to the development of the color PC monitor
and, in 1999, Dean led a team of engineers at IBM's Austin, Texas, lab to
create the first gigahertz chip—a revolutionary piece of technology that is
able to do a billion calculations a second.
In all, Dean holds three of the
company's original nine patents and, in total, has more 20 patents associated
with his name.
Later Years
Despite his early success, Mark Dean
continued to further his education. He earned his master's degree in electrical
engineering from Florida Atlantic University in 1982. Then, 10 years later, he
completed his doctorate in the same field from Stanford University.
While Dean's name isn't quite as well
known as maybe other computer pioneers such as Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, the
inventor hasn't gone completely unrecognized. In 1996, he was named an IBM
fellow, the first African-American ever to receive the honor. A year later, he
was honored with the Black Engineer of the Year President's Award and was
inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. In 2001, he was tapped to be
a member of the National Academy of Engineers.
"A lot of kids growing up today
aren't told that you can be whatever you want to be," Dean has said.
"There may be obstacles, but there are no limits."
This entire paper was plagiarized from http://www.biography.com/people/mark-dean-604036#early-life-and-education
ReplyDelete