David C. Evans (computer scientist)

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David Cannon Evans (born February 24, 1924 in Salt Lake City , † October 3, 1998 ) was an American computer scientist, founder of the computer science faculty at the University of Utah and with Ivan Sutherland co-founder of the software company Evans & Sutherland , which deals with computer graphics applications for science, industry and the military, especially simulators.

Evans studied electrical engineering at the University of Utah, where he received a PhD in physics. He was project manager at Bendix Aviation Electronics Company for the development of small computers, the G 15 introduced in 1955 and the G 20 (1961). In the early 1960s, he moved to the University of California, Berkeley . Here he developed an early multi-user time-sharing system ( Project Genie , 1963) that led to the first commercial TS system ( SDS 940 from Xerox Corporation , mid-1960s). It was here that he began to work with computer graphics and developed the concept of virtual memory . Butler Lampson and L. Peter Deutsch were some of his students in Berkeley, and it was there that he first met Ivan Sutherland, with whom he later worked closely at the University of Utah. In 1965 he went to the University of Utah, where he built up the computer science faculty and in 1968 caught up with Ivan Sutherland. Together they founded Evans and Sutherland that same year. At the University of Utah, both led research in computer graphics and brought together a number of students who made breakthroughs in the field ( Bùi Tường Phong , Henri Gouraud , later James F. Blinn ) and some of them later made spectacular careers in the computer industry ( James H. Clark , Alan Kay , John Warnock , Alan Ashton , Edwin Catmull ). In 1994 he retired from Evans and Sutherland.

In 1991 Evans was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . In 1996 he received the Computer World-Smithsonian Award for his life's work.

Evans was married to Joy Evans and had ten children. He was a Mormon and held high positions in their church organization.

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personal data
SURNAME Evans, David C.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Evans, David Cannon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American computer scientist
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Salt Lake City , Utah , United States
DATE OF DEATH October 3, 1998