Gordon Bell

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Gordon Bell is a principal researcher with the Microsoft eSciences Research Group, San Francisco (1995-) working on tools to capture everything in a person’s life and Visiting Professor, Macquarie University’s Institute for Innovation. His career includes: vice president of R & D, Digital Equipment Corp. (1960-1983); Professor of Computer Science and electrical engineering, Carnegie-Mellon University (1966-72); founding Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation’s Computing and Information Sciences and Engineering (CISE) Directorate (1986-1988); National Research and Education Network (NREN) panel chair (1987-1988) for creating the internet; advisor/investor in 90 start-up companies; and a founding trustee of the Computer History Museum, Mountain View, CA. He is a Diamond Exchange Fellow, on TTI Vanguard’s Advisory Board, and the Dept. of Energy’s Advanced Scientific Computing Advisory Committee.

Since 1987 he has sponsored the ACM’s Gordon Bell Prizes for parallelism awarded annually at Supercomputing. He has BS and MS degrees from MIT (1956-57), University of New South Wales Fulbright Scholar (1957-58)an honorary D. Eng. from WPI (1993), and is a member of the AAAS, ACM, IEEE, and National Academy of Engineering. Awards include: ACM-IEEE Eckert-Mauchley Award, the IEEE’s Computer Pioneer and McDowell Awards, and the IEEE Von Neumann Medal, Fellow of the Computer History Museum, the AEA Inventor Award for the economic contribution to New England, the IEEE 2001 Karapetoff Eminent Member’s Award of Eta Kappa Nu, and The 1991 National Medal of Technology "for his continuing intellectual and industrial achievements in the field of computer design; and for his leading role in establishing ... computers that serve as a significant tool for engineering, science, and industry."

Specifically, he was the architect of various mini- and time-sharing computers (DEC PDP-6) and led the development of DEC’s VAX and the VAX Computing Environment. Bell has been involved in or responsible for, the design of many products at Digital and a score of other companies. Bell has authored books and papers about computers and start-up companies including Computer Structures with Allen Newell (1971) and Dan Siewiorek and Allen Newell (1982). High Tech Ventures: The Guide to Entrepreneurial Success (1991), describes the Bell-Mason Model and Diagnostic, for analyzing new ventures. Bell’s Law describes how semiconductor and communication technology evolves to create new computer classes and industries.

Contact Gordon Bell