Peter J. Weinberger is
a computer scientist who works at Google.
He received his PhD in mathematics (number theory) in 1969 from the
University of California, Berkeley under Derrick Henry Lehmer for his
thesis entitled "Proof of a Conjecture of Gauss on Class Number Two".
After holding a position in the Department of Mathematics at the
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he continued his work in
analytic number theory, he moved to AT&T Bell Labs.
There he contributed to the design of the pioneering AWK programming
language (he is the "W" in AWK). A detailed explanation of his
contributions to AWK and other Unix tools can be found in an interview
transcript at Princeton University. Another interview Laurianne
McLaughlin, "From AWK to Google: Peter Weinberger Talks Search," IEEE
Security & Privacy, vol. 3, no. 5, September/October 2005, pp. 11-13
sheds some light on his work at Google. Both interviews also confirm
rumours about his involvement in early digital photography, especially
the abuse of a photograph of his face for demonstrating digital
imaging effects. When Peter Weinberger was promoted to head of
Computer Science Research at Bell Labs, his picture was merged with
the AT&T "death star" logo of the mid-80s, creating the PJW-Face image
that has appeared in innumerable locations, including t-shirts, coffee
mugs, CDs, and at least one water tower. Prior to joining Google he
was chief technology officer at Renaissance Technologies.
Writings
Alfred V. Aho, Brian W. Kernighan, and Peter J. Weinberger (1988). The
AWK Programming Language. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-07981-X. The
book's webpage includes downloads of the current implementation of Awk
and links to others. |
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