Mark Weiser
| Mark Weiser | |
|---|---|
Mark Weiser
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| Born |
July 23, 1952 Harvey, Illinois |
| Died | April 27, 1999 (aged 46) |
| Alma mater | University of Michigan |
| Known for | Ubiquitous computing |
Mark D. Weiser (July 23, 1952 – April 27, 1999) was a chief scientist at Xerox PARC in the United States. Weiser is widely considered to be the father of ubiquitous computing, a term he coined in 1988.
Weiser was born in Harvey, Illinois to David W. Weiser and Audra H. Weiser. He was a descendant of Conrad Weiser. Weiser entered New College of Florida in 1970, but did not remain at that institution to graduate. He studied Computer and Communication Science at the University of Michigan, receiving an M.A. in 1977 and a Ph.D. in 1979. He was known to comment that he bypassed the bachelor's degree on the way to his Ph.D. He then spent eight years teaching in the University of Maryland Department of Computer Science.
While Weiser worked for a variety of computer related startups, his seminal work was in the field of ubiquitous computing while leading the computer science laboratory at PARC, which he joined in 1987. His ideas were significantly influenced by his father's reading of Michael Polanyi's "The Tacit Dimension". He became head of the computer science laboratory in 1988 and chief technology officer in 1996, authoring more than eighty technical publications.
In addition to in the field of computer science, Weiser was also the drummer for Severe Tire Damage.
In 1999, Weiser was diagnosed with stomach cancer and given 18 months to live. Weiser died six weeks later, on April 27, 1999. His younger sister, Mona Weiser Holmes (1953–1999) predeceased him by three weeks. His surviving sister is Ann Weiser Cornell (b. 1949). He was married to Victoria Reich. His daughters are Nicole Reich-Weiser (b. June 23, 1977) and Corinne Reich-Weiser (b. August 16, 1981).
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