William A. Wulf, Ph.D.
President National Academy of Engineering
Washington, D.C.

Dr. William A. Wulf was elected President of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in April 1997. He previously served as Interim President beginning in July 1996. Together with the National Academy of Sciences, the NAE operates under a congressional charter and presidential orders that call on it to provide advice to the government on issues of science and engineering.

Currently, Dr. Wulf is on leave from the University of Virginia where he is a University Professor and the AT&T Professor of Engineering and Applied Science. Among his activities at the University are a complete revision of the undergraduate computer science curriculum, research on computer architecture and computer security, and an effort to assist humanities scholars exploit information technology.

In 1988-90, Dr. Wulf was on leave from the University to be Assistant Director of the National Science Foundation where he headed the Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE). CISE is responsible for computer science and engineering research as well as for operation the National Supercomputer Centers and NSFNET (the immediate precurser to the
commercial Internet).

Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Virginia, Dr. Wulf founded Tartan Laboratories and served as its Chairman and Chief Executire Officer. Dr. Wulf grew the company to about a hundred employees. Tartan developed and marketed optimizing compilers, notably for Ada. Tartan was sold to Texas Instruments in 1995.

The technical basis for Tartan was research by Dr. Wulf while he was a Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie-Mellon University. At Carnegie Mellon, Dr. Wulf’s research spanned programming systems and computer architecture; specific research activities included the design and implementation of a systems-implementation language (Bliss), architectural design of the DEC PDP-11, the design and construction of a sixteen processor multiprocessor and its
operating system, a new approach to computer security, and development of a technology for the construction of high quality optimizing compilers.

Dr. Wulf received his Bachelor of Science in Engineering Physics (1961) and his Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering (1963) from the University of Illinois. In 1968 he received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of Virginia. Dr. Wulf is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a Corresponding Member of the Academia Espanola de Ingeniera. He is also a Fellow of four professional
societies: the ACM, the IEEE, the AAS, and AWIS.

Dr. Wulf is the author of over 100 papers and technical reports, holds two US patents, and has supervised over twenty-five Ph.D.’s in computer science. He is the author of three books: Hydra/C.mmp: An Experimental Computer System (McGraw-Hill, 1980), Fundamental Structures of Computer Science (Addison Wesley 1980), and The Design of an Optimizing Compiler (Elsevier, 1975).