Jacob T. Schwartz


Jacob Theodore "Jack" Schwartz was an American mathematician, computer scientist, and professor of computer science at the New York University Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. He was the designer of the SETL programming language and started the NYU Ultracomputer project. He founded the New York University Department of Computer Science, chairing it from 1964 to 1980.

Early life

Schwartz was born in The Bronx, New York on January 9, 1930 to Ignatz and Hedwig Schwartz. He attended Stuyvesant High School and went on to City College of New York.

Education

He received his B.S. from the City College of New York and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University.

Career

His research interests included the theory of linear operators, von Neumann algebras, quantum field theory, time-sharing, parallel computing, programming language design and implementation, robotics, set-theoretic approaches in computational logic, proof and program verification systems; multimedia authoring tools; experimental studies of visual perception; multimedia and other high-level software techniques for analysis and visualization of bioinformatic data.
He authored 18 books and more than 100 papers and technical reports.
He was also the inventor of the Artspeak programming language that historically ran on mainframes and produced graphical output using a single-color graphical plotter.
He served as Chairman of the Computer Science Department at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, from 1969 to 1977. He also served as Chairman of the Computer Science Board of the National Research Council and was the former Chairman of the National Science Foundation Advisory Committee for Information, Robotics and Intelligent Systems. From 1986 to 1989, he was the Director of DARPA's Information Science and Technology Office in Arlington, Virginia.

Personal life

Jacob T. Schwartz was married to photographer Diana Robinson Schwartz. She survives him. Jacob T Schwartz had two daughters; Abby Schwartz, living in New York City, and Rachel Fainman, living in Winnipeg, Canada. Jack also had two grandchildren: Adrienne Fainman and Adam Fainman.

Publications