{"id":7439,"date":"2023-12-03T16:40:40","date_gmt":"2023-12-03T16:40:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/?p=7439"},"modified":"2023-12-03T16:43:34","modified_gmt":"2023-12-03T16:43:34","slug":"david-wheeler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/david-wheeler\/","title":{"rendered":"David Wheeler:"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>&nbsp;<strong><u>David John Wheeler&nbsp;<\/u><\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fellow_of_the_Royal_Society\"><strong>FRS<\/strong><\/a>&nbsp; (9 February 1927 \u2013 13 December 2004)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>David Wheeler, <\/strong>a member of the team at Cambridge University which built EDSAC under Maurice Wilkes, had the distinction of being the first person to be awarded a PhD in compute science in the UK in 1951.\u00a0 He played an important role in the collaboration between Cambridge University and J. Lyons in the period starting in 1949 when the Lyons Board made the decision to go ahead with the design and construction of the first LEO computer.\u00a0 In particular much of the systems software including the initial orders, the use of subroutines and relative addressing owe much to his invention and tuition. But he also experimented with Derek Hemy in drafting a payroll program to be tried on EDSAC.\u00a0 He went on to have a distinguished career in Computing, became an FRS and held in international esteem.\u00a0 He is included in the Dictionary of National Biography (ONNB), his profile written by Martin Campbell-Kelly published online 3<sup>rd<\/sup> January 2008 and in print 5<sup>th<\/sup> March 2009.\u00a0 He is remembered in many obituaries and tributes including a biographical sketch on page 211 of\u00a0 \u2018LEO: The World\u2019s First Business Computer\u2019 by Peter J. Bird. His Oral History is held in the Babbage institute. <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/David_Wheeler_(computer_scientist)\">https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/David_Wheeler_(computer_scientist)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/obituaries\/technology-obituaries\/8171435\/Professor-Sir-Maurice-Wilkes.html\">Wilkes.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;David John Wheeler&nbsp;FRS&nbsp; (9 February 1927 \u2013 13 December 2004) David Wheeler, a member of the team at Cambridge University which built EDSAC under Maurice Wilkes, had the distinction of being the first person to be awarded a PhD in compute science in the UK in 1951.\u00a0 He played an important role in the collaboration [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-obit"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>David Wheeler: - LEOPEDIA EDITORIAL SYSTEM<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/david-wheeler\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"David Wheeler: - LEOPEDIA EDITORIAL SYSTEM\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&nbsp;David John Wheeler&nbsp;FRS&nbsp; (9 February 1927 \u2013 13 December 2004) David Wheeler, a member of the team at Cambridge University which built EDSAC under Maurice Wilkes, had the distinction of being the first person to be awarded a PhD in compute science in the UK in 1951.\u00a0 He played an important role in the collaboration [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/david-wheeler\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"LEOPEDIA EDITORIAL SYSTEM\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-03T16:40:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-03T16:43:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"LEO editor\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"LEO editor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/david-wheeler\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/david-wheeler\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"LEO editor\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ea535d902aa97c04183bdce5dfbab398\"},\"headline\":\"David Wheeler:\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-03T16:40:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-03T16:43:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/david-wheeler\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":217,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Announcements of deaths and obituaries\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/david-wheeler\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/david-wheeler\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/david-wheeler\\\/\",\"name\":\"David Wheeler: - LEOPEDIA EDITORIAL SYSTEM\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-03T16:40:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-12-03T16:43:34+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/david-wheeler\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/david-wheeler\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/david-wheeler\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"David Wheeler:\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/\",\"name\":\"LEO Computers Society\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"LEO Computers Socity\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/02\\\/logo-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/02\\\/logo-1.jpg\",\"width\":158,\"height\":70,\"caption\":\"LEO Computers Socity\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/en.wikipedia.org\\\/wiki\\\/LEO_(computer)\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ea535d902aa97c04183bdce5dfbab398\",\"name\":\"LEO editor\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/853b61b2912bf2bff06794431698f0a91708b2a683e55e992a6987cddf79ebaa?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/853b61b2912bf2bff06794431698f0a91708b2a683e55e992a6987cddf79ebaa?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/853b61b2912bf2bff06794431698f0a91708b2a683e55e992a6987cddf79ebaa?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"LEO editor\"},\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\\\/leopedia.org\\\/author\\\/vince\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"David Wheeler: - LEOPEDIA EDITORIAL SYSTEM","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/david-wheeler\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"David Wheeler: - LEOPEDIA EDITORIAL SYSTEM","og_description":"&nbsp;David John Wheeler&nbsp;FRS&nbsp; (9 February 1927 \u2013 13 December 2004) David Wheeler, a member of the team at Cambridge University which built EDSAC under Maurice Wilkes, had the distinction of being the first person to be awarded a PhD in compute science in the UK in 1951.\u00a0 He played an important role in the collaboration [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/david-wheeler\/","og_site_name":"LEOPEDIA EDITORIAL SYSTEM","article_published_time":"2023-12-03T16:40:40+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-12-03T16:43:34+00:00","author":"LEO editor","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"LEO editor","Estimated reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/david-wheeler\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/david-wheeler\/"},"author":{"name":"LEO editor","@id":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/#\/schema\/person\/ea535d902aa97c04183bdce5dfbab398"},"headline":"David Wheeler:","datePublished":"2023-12-03T16:40:40+00:00","dateModified":"2023-12-03T16:43:34+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/david-wheeler\/"},"wordCount":217,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Announcements of deaths and obituaries"],"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/david-wheeler\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/david-wheeler\/","url":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/david-wheeler\/","name":"David Wheeler: - LEOPEDIA EDITORIAL SYSTEM","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-12-03T16:40:40+00:00","dateModified":"2023-12-03T16:43:34+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/david-wheeler\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/david-wheeler\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/david-wheeler\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"David Wheeler:"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/","name":"LEO Computers Society","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/#organization","name":"LEO Computers Socity","url":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/logo-1.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/logo-1.jpg","width":158,"height":70,"caption":"LEO Computers Socity"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/LEO_(computer)"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/#\/schema\/person\/ea535d902aa97c04183bdce5dfbab398","name":"LEO editor","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/853b61b2912bf2bff06794431698f0a91708b2a683e55e992a6987cddf79ebaa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/853b61b2912bf2bff06794431698f0a91708b2a683e55e992a6987cddf79ebaa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/853b61b2912bf2bff06794431698f0a91708b2a683e55e992a6987cddf79ebaa?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"LEO editor"},"url":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/author\/vince\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7439"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7441,"href":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7439\/revisions\/7441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}