There is one thing that all humans cannot avoid and that is death. Only practices in this world can determine fate in the next world. This year there were many prominent figures in the world of science and technology who left the mortal world. Here are 10 science and technology figures who died this year but whose impact on the world will never be forgotten.
1. Kevin Mitnick – The “OG” Hacker
For those who experienced the first generation of the internet, Kevin Mitnick was the first hacker known to the world and became the template for the "hacker" after that. Mitnick died on July 16 at the age of 59 from pancreatic cancer.
His name became known to the world in 1995 after he was hunted by the FBI for accessing computer networks before stealing passwords and software. The deceased had started hacking since 1979 at the age of 16. He was sentenced to five years in prison for hacking.
After his release from prison, he was banned from using computers for three years. This was later withdrawn after Mitnick agreed not to profit from selling books and films based on his life for seven years. After that period he started his career as a security consultant through his own company holding the position of Chief Hacker.
2. Gordon Moore – Founder of Moore's Law
Moore's Law states that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC) will double every two years with the cost of producing them also halving. It was introduced in 1965 and since 1975 this law is still intact until now. The one who is not intact is Gordon Moore, the man who predicted Moore's Law because he died on March 26 at the age of 94.
Gordon Moore is the founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel which are two of the most important companies in the world semiconductor history. While at Intel he held positions as CEO and chairman before retiring in 2006.
What is interesting about the late Moore's career is that he was not actually an electronics engineer but actually a chemistry graduate from UC Berkeley and Caltech. His first job was to join a company founded by William Shockley – the inventor of the transistor. While there he was involved in the development of cheap silicon transistors. After that he and Robery Noyce (also the founder of Intel) joined Fairchild Semiconductor which is a company that creates integrated circuits
3. Sim Wong Hoo – Founder of Creative Technology
Early generation computers did not have enough power to carry out various functions like modern computers. If solid audio is desired, a sound card needs to be purchased and in this arena Creative Technology is a name synonymous with high quality audio on PCs before also offering speakers and MP3 players.
Creative Technology was developed by Sim Wong Hoo in 1981 and it is a company founded in Singapore. Sim Wong Hoo died on January 5 at the age of 67. No details were shared as to the cause of his death.
Creative began as a company that produced audio cards for the Apple II. In 2006 Creative sued Apple because the iPod infringed on the Zen MP3 player patent. Apple later agreed to pay $100 Million in compensatory damages.
4. John Goodenough – Co-Inventor of Li-ion Batteries
John Goodenough, one of the pioneers of Li-Ion battery technology, died June 27 in Texas at the age of 100. He was also the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019 along with Staley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino because the efforts of the three of them are the reason why Li-Ion batteries are now an important component on various electronic devices as well as electric cars.
In 1980 John Goodenough replaced the titanium disulfide cathode with cobalt oxide used in the li-ion cell invented by Staley Whittingham in the 1970s. With this cathode change, the capacity of the li-ion battery is doubled.
He received his undergraduate education at Yale University, before pursuing a master's degree and then a PhD in physics at the University of Chicago. He then became an instructor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While receiving the Nobel Prize in 2019, he became the oldest recipient at the age of 97.
5. John Warnock – Founder of Adobe
The co-founder of the leading company Adobe, John Edward Warnock breathed his last on August 20 at the age of 82 due to pancreatic cancer. He founded Adobe in 1982, along with Charles Geschke. He stepped down as CEO of Adobe in 2000, but remained on the board until 2017, and continued to help facilitate desktop publishing.
The first product he developed under Adobe was Adobe PostScript which revolutionized desktop publishing. In addition, in 1986, he also created Adobe Illustrator, and subsequently produced the PDF format in 1991. One of the popular typefaces is also named after him, which is Warnock. Steve Jobs himself tried to buy Adobe before, but was rejected by Adobe.
6. Virginia Norwood – Mother of Mapping From Outer Space
Open Google Map and Google Earth now. You can see every beautiful inch of the earth's surface from the vantage point of space. This technology that can be accessed anywhere in the world was developed by Virginia Norwood who died on March 26.
She was involved in the development of various sensors used on Landsat satellites that scan images and data of the earth's surface from space since 1972. Therefore she was given the title "Mother of Landsat". Landsat is a project by NASA to track Earth's changes by taking pictures that continues to this day.
Landsat 8, which is the latest satellite of this system, was launched in 2021. Through Landsat, information on climate change, the development of human settlement, habitat destruction and much more is now stored in the form of millions of images recorded over five decades.
7. Martin Goetz – First Individual to Receive a Software Patent
Which is more important? Software or hardware? Our answer is software because it can be used on various platforms with different hardware. Zuckerberg, Gates and Wozniak are among the individuals who made their fortunes by holding patents for software they developed themselves. They have to thank Martin Goetz who died on October 24 this year.
Martin Goetz was the first individual to receive a software patent in 1968 to prevent the then largest IT conglomerate, IBM from using his software along with their computer offerings for free.
At that time, computer software was not seen as a technology that could be patented and often many companies used "third party" software and without payment causing them to be closed because there was no source of income.
8. Sir Ian Wilmut – Father of Cloning
In 1996 the world was shocked when the Roslin Institute at the University of Edinburgh announced the successful cloning of a sheep named Dolly. It is the first time in history that a mammal has been successfully cloned. Sir Ian Wilmut who led the team that produced Dolly died aged 79 of Parkinson's disease on September 13.
Sir Wilmut's success opened up the study of stem cells used to treat various diseases such as Parkinson's. Unfortunately science did not advance fast enough for Sir Wilmut to see the technology he pioneered being used to treat himself.
Dolly was cloned using the cells of a Fin-Dorset sheep and the egg of another sheep combined. This produces an embryo which is then implanted into another sheep. The world's most famous sheep died in 2003 of lung disease and is now on public display at the Roslin Institute.
9. Dennis Austin – Powerpoint Developer
Dennis Austin's name we're sure is not as well known as Bill Gates, John Carmack and Grace Hopper but he is the software engineer responsible for developing Powerpoint. On September 1, he breathed his last at the age of 76 due to lung cancer that spread to the brain.
Powerpoint was launched in 1987 and was developed by Austin based on the ideas of Robert Gaskins while they were both working at the firm Forethought. Austin was responsible for producing software that initially went by the name Presenter and was for the Macintosh. According to Gaskins, most of the early features in Powerpoint were Austin's brainchild.
A few months after Powerpoint launched, Microsoft acquired Forethough for $13 million, making it the first purchase by a tech firm. Today 30 million presentations are produced every day using Powerpoint and it has become synonymous with the Microsoft Office software suite.
10. Paul Berg – Father of Genetic Engineering
Genetic engineering produces flood and drought resistant rice and increases crop yields in the fields. Paul Berg who pioneered genetic editing died on February 15. He received the title of Father of Genetic Engineering after successfully inserting bacterial DNA into the DNA of the SV40 virus in 1972. This produced the first molecule containing DNA from two different organisms.
This molecule is now known as hybrid DNA or recombinant DNA. His success in producing recombinant DNA led to him being awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1980. However, he was not comfortable being given the title of the father of genetic engineering because he felt that he was simply continuing the research done by previous scientists.
We are now seeing pig organs genetically modified to be more compatible when inserted into the human body. Without Paul Berg's early efforts, xenotransplantation would not have been possible.