View source for Donald Knuth

{{short description|American computer scientist and mathematician (born 1938)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2015}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name              = Donald Knuth
| birth_name        = Donald Ervin Knuth
| image             = Donald Ervin Knuth (cropped).jpg
| caption           = Knuth in 2011
| birth_date        = {{birth date and age|1938|1|10}}
| birth_place       = [[Milwaukee|Milwaukee, Wisconsin]], U.S.
| spouse            = Nancy Jill Carter
| children          = 2
| field             = {{ublist|[[Mathematics]]|[[Computer science]]}}
| work_institutions = [[Stanford University]]<br/>[[University of Oslo]]
| education         = {{ublist|[[Case Western Reserve University]] ([[Bachelor of Science|BS]], [[Master of Science|MS]])|[[California Institute of Technology]] ([[Doctor of Philosophy|PhD]])}}
| doctoral_advisor  = [[Marshall Hall (mathematician)|Marshall Hall, Jr.]]<ref name=mathgene>{{MathGenealogy|id=10416}}</ref>
| doctoral_students = {{Plainlist|
* [[Leonidas J. Guibas]]
* [[Michael Fredman]]
* [[Scott Kim]]
* [[Vaughan Pratt]]
* [[Robert Sedgewick (computer scientist)|Robert Sedgewick]]
* [[Jeffrey Vitter]]
* [[Andrei Broder]]<ref name=mathgene/>}}
| thesis_title      = Finite Semifields and Projective Planes
| thesis_year       = 1963
| thesis_url        = https://thesis.library.caltech.edu/2441/1/Knuth_de_1963.pdf
| known_for         = {{collapsible list|title={{nobold|''See list''}}|{{ublist|''[[The Art of Computer Programming]]'', |[[TeX]], [[METAFONT]], |[[Computer Modern]], |[[Knuth's up-arrow notation]], |[[Knuth–Morris–Pratt algorithm]], ||[[Knuth–Bendix completion algorithm]], |[[MMIX]], |[[Robinson–Schensted–Knuth correspondence]], [[LR parser]], |[[Literate programming]]}}}}
| prizes            = {{collapsible list|title={{nobold|''See list''}}|{{Plainlist|
<!-- only awards that are notable enough for their own wikipedia article-->
* [[Outstanding Contribution to Computer Science Education|SIGCSE Outstanding Contribution]] (1986)
* [[Grace Murray Hopper Award]] (1971)
* [[Turing Award]] (1974)
* [[Member of the National Academy of Sciences]] (1975)
* [[National Medal of Science]] (1979)
* [[John von Neumann Medal]] (1995)
* [[Harvey Prize]] (1995)
* [[Kyoto Prize]] (1996)
* [[Foreign Member of the Royal Society]] (2003)<ref name=formemrs>{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117113154/https://royalsociety.org/people/donald-knuth-11764/ |archive-date=2015-11-17 |url=https://royalsociety.org/people/donald-knuth-11764/ |publisher=[[Royal Society]] |location=London |title=Professor Donald Knuth ForMemRS}}</ref>
* [[Faraday Medal]] (2011)
* [[BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award]] (2010)
* [[Turing Lecture]] (2011)
* [[Flajolet Lecture Prize|Flajolet Lecture]] (2014)}}}}
| website           = {{URL|https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth}}
}}
'''Donald Ervin Knuth''' ({{IPAc-en|k|ə|ˈ|n|uː|θ}} {{respell|kə|NOOTH|'}};<ref name="faq"/> born January 10, 1938) is an American computer scientist and mathematician. He is a [[professor emeritus]] at [[Stanford University]]. He is the 1974 recipient of the [[Acm Turing award|ACM Turing Award]], informally considered the [[Nobel Prize]] of computer science.<ref name = "Turing Award"/> Knuth has been called the "father of the [[analysis of algorithms]]".<ref>{{cite journal |last=Karp |first=Richard M. |author-link=Richard M. Karp |date=February 1986 |doi=10.1145/5657.5658 |issue=2 |journal=Communications of the ACM |pages=98–109 |title=Combinatorics, Complexity, and Randomness |volume=29|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Knuth is the author of the multi-volume work ''[[The Art of Computer Programming]]''. He contributed to the development of the rigorous analysis of the [[computational complexity]] of algorithms and systematized formal mathematical techniques for it. In the process, he also popularized the [[Big O notation|asymptotic notation]]. In addition to fundamental contributions in several branches of [[theoretical computer science]], Knuth is the creator of the [[TeX]] computer typesetting system, the related [[METAFONT]] font definition language and rendering system, and the [[Computer Modern]] family of typefaces.

As a writer and scholar, Knuth created the [[WEB]] and [[CWEB]] computer programming systems designed to encourage and facilitate [[literate programming]], and designed the [[MIX (abstract machine)|MIX]]/[[MMIX]] [[instruction set|instruction set architectures]]. He strongly opposes the granting of [[software patent]]s, and has expressed [[#Opinion_on_software_patents|his opinion]] to the [[United States Patent and Trademark Office]] and [[European Patent Organisation]].

==Biography==
===Early life===
Donald Knuth was born in [[Milwaukee]], [[Wisconsin]], to Ervin Henry Knuth and Louise Marie Bohning.<ref name="MacTutor">{{MacTutor |id=Knuth |date=October 2015 |access-date=2021-07-02}}</ref> He describes his heritage as "Midwestern Lutheran German".{{r|Feigenbaum 2007|p=66}} His father owned a small printing business and taught bookkeeping.<ref name="Raskin2013">{{cite book |author=Molly Knight Raskin |title=No Better Time: The Brief, Remarkable Life of Danny Lewin--the Genius who Transformed the Internet |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Pi79AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA61 |year=2013 |publisher=Da Capo Press, Incorporated |isbn=978-0-306-82166-0 |pages=61–62}}</ref> While a student at [[Milwaukee Lutheran High School]], Knuth thought of ingenious ways to solve problems. For example, in eighth grade, he entered a contest to find the number of words that the letters in "Ziegler Giant Bar"<ref>[https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-minneapolis-star/176453787/ Advertisement], ''[[Minneapolis Star]]'', February 13, 1952, page 59.</ref> could be rearranged to create; the judges had identified 2,500 such words. With time gained away from school due to a fake stomachache, Knuth used an unabridged dictionary and determined whether each dictionary entry could be formed using the letters in the phrase. He identified over 4,500 words, winning the contest.<ref name="Feigenbaum 2007">{{cite web |last1=Feigenbaum |first1=Edward|author-link1=Edward Feigenbaum |title=Oral History of Donald Knuth |url=https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Oral_History/Knuth_Don_1/Knuth_Don.oral_history.2007.102658053_all.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081209120854/http://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Oral_History/Knuth_Don_1/Knuth_Don.oral_history.2007.102658053_all.pdf |archive-date=2008-12-09 |url-status=live |website=Computer History Museum |access-date=17 September 2020 |date=2007}}</ref>{{rp|3}} As prizes, the school received a new television and enough candy bars for all of his schoolmates to eat.<ref>{{Cite book |year=1998 |title=Out of their minds: the lives and discoveries of 15 great computer scientists |first1=Dennis Elliott |last1=Shasha |first2=Cathy A |last2=Lazere |publisher=Springer |isbn=978-0-387-98269-4 |page=90 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-0tDZX3z-8UC&pg=PA90}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | year=2011 | title=Selected Papers on Fun and Games | first1=Donald | last1=Knuth | publisher=Center for the Study of Language and Information—CSLI Lecture Notes, no. 192 | page=400 | isbn=978-1-57586-584-3}}</ref>

===Education===
Knuth received a scholarship in physics to the Case Institute of Technology (now part of [[Case Western Reserve University]]) in [[Cleveland]], Ohio, enrolling in 1956.<ref name="ency2020">{{cite web |title=Donald E. Knuth |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/science-and-technology/computers-and-computing-biographies/donald-e-knuth |website=Encyclopedia.com |access-date=17 September 2020}}</ref> He also joined the Beta Nu Chapter of the [[Theta Chi fraternity]]. While studying physics at Case, Knuth was introduced to the [[IBM 650]], an early commercial [[computer]]. After reading the computer's manual, Knuth decided to rewrite the [[assembly code|assembly]] and [[compiler]] code for the machine used in his school because he believed he could do it better.<ref name="Koshy2004">{{Cite book |first=Thomas |last=Koshy |title=Discrete mathematics with applications |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=90KApidK5NwC&pg=PA244 |access-date=July 30, 2011 |year=2004 |publisher=Academic Press |isbn=978-0-12-421180-3 |page=244 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121112175255/http://books.google.com/books?id=90KApidK5NwC&pg=PA244 |archive-date=November 12, 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1958, Knuth created a program to help his school's basketball team win its games.<ref>{{cite web |title=Donald Knuth, basketball and computers in sport |first=Keith |last=Lyons |url=https://keithlyons.me/blog/2018/09/25/donald-knuth-basketball-and-computers-in-sport/ |work=Clyde Street Archive |date=September 25, 2018 |access-date=August 16, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190816141158/https://keithlyons.me/blog/2018/09/25/donald-knuth-basketball-and-computers-in-sport/ |archive-date=August 16, 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He assigned "values" to players in order to gauge their probability of scoring points, a novel approach that ''[[Newsweek]]'' and ''[[CBS Evening News]]'' later reported on.<ref name= "Koshy2004"/>

Knuth was one of the founding editors of the Case Institute's ''Engineering and Science Review'', which won a national award as best technical magazine in 1959.<ref name="BetaNu-Case-edu">{{Cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160904030655/http://greeklife.case.edu/org/thetachi/Our_History |url=http://greeklife.case.edu/org/thetachi/Our_History |title=Beta Nu of Theta Chi, History of Beta Nu Chapter |publisher=[[CWRU]] |archive-date=September 4, 2016 |access-date=April 15, 2019 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="BetaNu-ThetaChi-org">{{Cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191221062600/https://www.thetachi.org/beta-nu |url=https://www.thetachi.org/beta-nu |title=Beta Nu, Theta Chi |publisher=[[Theta Chi]] |archive-date=December 21, 2019 |access-date=December 21, 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He then switched from physics to mathematics, and received two degrees from Case in 1960:<ref name="ency2020" /> his Bachelor of Science, and simultaneously a master of science by a special award of the faculty, who considered his work exceptionally outstanding.<ref name = "Turing Award">{{cite web |last=Walden |first=David |url=https://amturing.acm.org/award_winners/knuth_1013846.cfm |title=Donald E. Knuth - A.M. Turing Award Laureate |access-date=December 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191017231352/http://amturing.acm.org/award_winners/knuth_1013846.cfm |archive-date=October 17, 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref name = "Koshy2004" />

At the end of his senior year at Case in 1960, Knuth proposed to [[Burroughs Corporation]] to write an [[ALGOL]] compiler for the B205 for $5,500. The proposal was accepted and he worked on the ALGOL compiler between graduating from Case and going to [[California Institute of Technology|Caltech]]. {{r|Feigenbaum 2007|p=66}}<ref name="Waychoff 1979">{{cite web |last1=Waychoff |first1=Richard |title=Stories About the B5000 and People Who Were There |url= https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/access/text/2016/06/102724640-05-01-acc.pdf |website=Computer History Museum}}</ref>{{rp|7}}

In 1963, with mathematician [[Marshall Hall (mathematician)|Marshall Hall]] as his adviser,<ref name=mathgene/> he earned a PhD in mathematics from the [[California Institute of Technology]], with a thesis titled ''Finite Semifields and Projective Planes''.<ref>{{Cite thesis |publisher=[[California Institute of Technology]] |date=1963 |url=https://thesis.library.caltech.edu/2441/1/Knuth_de_1963.pdf |title=Finite Semifields and Projective Planes |first=Donald Ervin |last=Knuth |type=PhD}}</ref>

===Early work===
In 1963, after receiving his PhD, Knuth joined Caltech's faculty as an assistant professor.<ref name=vitae/>

While at Caltech and after the success of the Burroughs B205 ALGOL compiler, he became consultant to Burroughs Corporation, joining the Product Planning Department. At Caltech he was operating as a mathematician but at Burroughs as a programmer working with the people he considered to have written the best software at the time in the ALGOL compiler for the B220 computer (successor to the B205).{{r|Feigenbaum 2007|p=9}}

Knuth was offered a $100,000 contract to write compilers at Green Tree Corporation but turned it down making a decision not to optimize income and continued at Caltech and Burroughs.
He received a National Science Foundation Fellowship and Woodrow Wilson Foundation Fellowship but they had the condition that you could not do anything else but study as a graduate student so he would not be able to continue as a consultant to Burroughs. He chose to turn down the fellowships and continued with Burroughs.{{r|Feigenbaum 2007|p=12}}
In summer 1962, he wrote a FORTRAN compiler for Univac, but considered that "I sold my soul to the devil" to write a FORTRAN compiler.{{r|Feigenbaum 2007|p=15}}

After graduating, Knuth returned to Burroughs in June 1961 but did not tell them he had graduated with a master's degree, rather than the expected bachelor's degree. Impressed by the ALGOL syntax chart, symbol table, recursive-descent approach and the separation of the scanning, parsing and emitting functions of the compiler Knuth suggested an extension to the symbol table that one symbol could stand for a string of symbols. This became the basis of the DEFINE in Burroughs ALGOL, which has since been adopted by other languages. However, some really disliked the idea and wanted DEFINE removed. The last person to think it was a terrible idea was [[Edsger W. Dijkstra|Edsger Dijkstra]] on a visit to Burroughs.{{r|Waychoff 1979|p=17}}

Knuth worked on simulation languages at Burroughs producing SOL 'Simulation Oriented Language', an improvement on the state-of-the-art, co-designed with J. McNeeley. He attended a conference in Norway in May, 1967 organised by the people who invented the Simula language. Knuth influenced Burroughs to use Simula.<ref name="Dahl 2001">{{cite web |last1=Dahl |first1=Ole-Johan |title=The Birth of Object Orientation: the Simula Languages |url= https://www.mn.uio.no/ifi/english/about/ole-johan-dahl/bibliography/the-birth-of-object-orientation-the-simula-languages.pdf}}</ref><ref name="Biography">{{cite web |title=Biography |url= https://www.informs.org/Explore/History-of-O.R.-Excellence/Biographical-Profiles/Knuth-Donald/}}</ref>
Knuth had a long association with Burroughs as a consultant from 1960 to 1968 until his move into more academic work at Stanford in 1969.<ref name="Nance">{{cite web |title=Interview with Richard Nance 2013 |url= https://d.lib.ncsu.edu/computer-simulation/videos/donald-e-knuth-interviewed-by-richard-e-nance-knuth/}}</ref><ref name="Knuth CV">{{cite web |last1=Dahl |first1=Ole-Johan |title=The Birth of Object Orientation: the Simula Languages |url= https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/vita.html}}</ref>

In 1962, Knuth accepted a commission from [[Addison-Wesley]] to write a book on computer [[programming language]] [[compiler]]s. While working on this project, he decided that he could not adequately treat the topic without first developing a fundamental theory of computer programming, which became ''[[The Art of Computer Programming]]''. He originally planned to publish this as a single book, but as he developed his outline for the book, he concluded that he required six volumes, and then seven, to thoroughly cover the subject. He published the first volume in 1968.<ref name=TAOCP>{{Cite web |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |title=The Art of Computer Programming (TAOCP) |url=https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/taocp.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803223145/https://www.cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/taocp.html |archive-date=2019-08-03 |date=2019-08-03 |access-date=2018-02-06 }}</ref>

Just before publishing the first volume of ''The Art of Computer Programming'', Knuth left Caltech to accept employment with the [[Institute for Defense Analyses#Center for Communications and Computing|Institute for Defense Analyses' Communications Research Division]],<ref name="Institute for Defense Analyses">{{cite web | title=Institute for Defense Analyses | website=INFORMS | date=2021-08-27 | url=https://www.informs.org/Explore/History-of-O.R.-Excellence/Non-Academic-Institutions/Institute-for-Defense-Analyses | access-date=2024-01-08}}</ref> then situated on the [[Princeton University|Princeton]] campus, which was performing mathematical research in [[cryptography]] to support the [[National Security Agency]].

In 1967, Knuth attended a [[Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics]] conference and someone asked what he did. At the time, computer science was partitioned into [[numerical analysis]], [[artificial intelligence]], and [[programming language theory|programming languages]]. Based on his study and ''The Art of Computer Programming'' book, Knuth decided the next time someone asked he would say, "Analysis of algorithms".<ref name="quanta_magazine">{{cite web |title=The Computer Scientist Who Can't Stop Telling Stories |url=https://www.quantamagazine.org/computer-scientist-donald-knuth-cant-stop-telling-stories-20200416 |first=Susan |last=D'Agostino |work=[[Quanta Magazine]] |date=2020-04-16 |access-date=2020-04-19 }}</ref>

In 1969, Knuth left his position at Princeton to join the [[Stanford University]] faculty,<ref name="Computer Science department timeline">{{cite web | title=Timeline | website=Computer Science @ Stanford - Spotlight at Stanford | date=2019-06-21 | url=https://exhibits.stanford.edu/cs/about/timeline | access-date=2024-01-08}}</ref> where he became [[Fletcher R. Jones|Fletcher Jones]] Professor of Computer Science in 1977. He became Professor of The Art of Computer Programming in 1990, and has been emeritus since 1993.<ref name="homepage">{{Cite web |url=https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/ |title=Home page |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |publisher=[[Stanford University]] |access-date=2005-03-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191127223728/https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/ |archive-date=2019-11-27 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Donald Knuth |url=https://profiles.stanford.edu/donald-knuth |work=Profiles |publisher=Stanford University |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160612181314/https://profiles.stanford.edu/donald-knuth |archive-date=2016-06-12 |url-status=dead |access-date=2020-08-24 }}</ref>

== Writings ==
Knuth is a writer as well as a computer scientist.<ref name=vitae>{{Cite web |url=https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/vita.html |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |title=Curriculum vitae |publisher=Stanford University |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803232050/https://www.cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/vita.html |archive-date=August 3, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== ''The Art of Computer Programming'' (''TAOCP'') ===
{{main |The Art of Computer Programming{{!}}''The Art of Computer Programming''}}
{{Blockquote
|text="The best way to communicate from one human being to another is through story."
|author=Donald Knuth<ref name="quanta_magazine"/>
}}

In the 1970s, Knuth called computer science "a totally new field with no real identity. And the standard of available publications was not that high. A lot of the papers coming out were quite simply wrong.&nbsp;... So one of my motivations was to put straight a story that had been very badly told."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/tlfu/ing/microsites/premios/fronteras/galardonados/2010/informacion.jsp |title=BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards |access-date=October 15, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819042332/http://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/tlfu/ing/microsites/premios/fronteras/galardonados/2010/informacion.jsp |archive-date=August 19, 2016 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>

From 1972 to 1973, Knuth spent a year at the [[University of Oslo]] among people such as [[Ole-Johan Dahl]]. This is where he had originally intended to write the seventh volume in his book series, which was to deal with programming languages. But Knuth had finished only the first two volumes when he came to Oslo, and thus spent the year on the third volume, next to teaching. The third volume came out just after Knuth returned to Stanford in 1973.<ref>{{Cite web|date=1997|title=Publikasjonen "Datahistorien ved Universitetet i Oslo - Institutt for informatikk 1977 - 1997" utgitt|language=Norwegian|trans-title=The publication "Computer history at the University of Oslo - Department of Informatics 1977 - 1997" published|url=https://ordenen.ifi.uio.no/history/1997-datahistorien-ved-universitetet-i-oslo-published/|url-status=live|access-date=29 April 2021|website=University of Oslo|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210429185911/https://ordenen.ifi.uio.no/history/1997-datahistorien-ved-universitetet-i-oslo-published/ |archive-date=April 29, 2021 }}</ref>

''[[Concrete Mathematics|Concrete Mathematics: A Foundation for Computer Science]]'' originated with an expansion of the mathematical preliminaries section of Volume 1 of ''TAoCP''. Knuth found that there were mathematical tools necessary for Volume 1, but missing from his repertoire, and decided that a course introducing those tools to computer science students would be useful. Knuth introduced the course at Stanford in 1970. Course notes developed by [[Oren Patashnik]] evolved into the 1988 text, with authors [[Ronald Graham]], Knuth, and Patashnik. A second edition of ''Concrete Mathematics'' was published in 1994.

By 2011, Volume 4A of ''TAoCP'' had been published.<ref name="TAOCP" /> In April 2020, Knuth said he anticipated that Volume 4 of ''TAoCP'' will have at least parts A through F.<ref name="quanta_magazine" /> Volume 4B was published in October 2022.

=== Other works ===
Knuth is also the author of ''[[Surreal Numbers (book)|Surreal Numbers]]'',<ref name=surreal/> a mathematical novelette on [[John Horton Conway]]'s [[set theory]] construction of an alternate system of numbers. Instead of simply explaining the subject, the book seeks to show the development of the mathematics. Knuth wanted the book to prepare students for doing original, creative research.

In 1995, Knuth wrote the foreword to the book ''A=B'' by [[Marko Petkovšek]], [[Herbert Wilf]] and [[Doron Zeilberger]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://sites.math.rutgers.edu/~zeilberg/DEK.html |title=DEK |last=Zeilberg |publisher=Rutgers |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170828184416/http://sites.math.rutgers.edu/~zeilberg/DEK.html |archive-date=August 28, 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref> He also occasionally contributes language puzzles to ''[[Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://old.linguistlist.org/pubs/journals/get-journals.cfm?JournalID=22720|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210611115447/https://old.linguistlist.org/pubs/journals/get-journals.cfm?JournalID=22720|url-status=dead|archive-date=June 11, 2021|title=The Linguist List -- Journal Page|website=linguistlist.org|access-date=2022-12-14}}</ref>

Knuth has delved into [[recreational mathematics]]. He contributed articles to the ''[[Journal of Recreational Mathematics]]'' beginning in the 1960s, and was acknowledged as a major contributor in [[Joseph Madachy]]'s ''Mathematics on Vacation''.<ref>Madachy, Joseph S.,''Mathematics on Vacation'', Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd. 1966</ref>

Knuth also appears in a number of [[Numberphile]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Videos about Numbers and Stuff |url=https://www.numberphile.com/team/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181104201526/http://www.numberphile.com/team/index.html |archive-date=November 4, 2018 |url-status=dead |work=[[Numberphile]] |access-date=August 16, 2019}}</ref> and Computerphile videos on [[YouTube]], where he discusses topics from writing ''Surreal Numbers''<ref>{{Citation|last=Numberphile|title=Surreal Numbers (writing the first book) - Numberphile|date=2016-06-27|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPn2AdMH7UQ| archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/mPn2AdMH7UQ| archive-date=2021-12-11 | url-status=live|access-date=2019-07-19}}{{cbignore}}</ref> to why he does not use email.<ref>{{Citation|last=Computerphile|title=Why Don Knuth Doesn't Use Email - Computerphile|date=2015-08-21|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS8qwMna8_o|access-date=2019-07-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180711015226/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS8qwMna8_o|archive-date=July 11, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>

Knuth had proposed the name "[[algorithmics]]" as a better name for the discipline of computer science.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Burkholder |first1=Leslie |title=Philosophy and the Computer |date=1992 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=9780429301629 |pages=}}</ref>

===Works about his religious beliefs===
In addition to his writings on computer science, Knuth, a [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]],{{Sfn | Platoni | 2006}} is also the author of ''3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated'',<ref>{{Cite book |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |title=3:16 : Bible texts illuminated |year=1991 |place=Madison, [[Wisconsin|WI]] |publisher=A-R Eds |isbn=978-0-89579-252-5}}</ref> in which he examines the Bible by a process of [[systematic sampling]], namely an analysis of chapter 3, verse 16 of each book.  Each verse is accompanied by a rendering in calligraphic art, contributed by a group of calligraphers led by [[Hermann Zapf]]. Knuth was invited to give a set of lectures at MIT on the views on religion and computer science behind his 3:16 project, resulting in another book, ''[[Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About]]'', where he published the lectures ''God and Computer Science''.<ref name="Knuth 2001 Rarely Talks">{{cite book | last=Knuth | first=Donald Ervin | title=Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About | publisher=Center for the Study of Language and Information Publications | publication-place=Stanford, California | date=2001 | isbn=978-1-57586-326-9 }}</ref>

===Opinion on software patents===
Knuth strongly opposes granting [[software patent]]s to trivial solutions that should be obvious, but has expressed more nuanced views for nontrivial solutions such as the [[interior-point method]] of [[linear programming]].<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.ams.org/notices/200203/fea-knuth.pdf |title=All Questions Answered |date=March 2002 |type=article |journal=Notices |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190430030346/http://www.ams.org/notices/200203/fea-knuth.pdf |archive-date=April 30, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> He has expressed his disagreement directly to both the [[United States Patent and Trademark Office]] and [[European Patent Organisation]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.groklaw.net/images/G308Knuth.pdf |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |title=Against software patents |access-date=February 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924040943/http://www.groklaw.net/images/G308Knuth.pdf |archive-date=September 24, 2015 |url-status=usurped }} Letter to the patent offices in the USA and Europe.</ref><ref name="AlgorithmPatents">{{cite web | title=February 1994 letter to the Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, Washington, DC | website=MIT CSAIL | url=https://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/projects/lpf/Patents/knuth-to-pto.txt | access-date=2025-09-09}}</ref>

==Programming==

===Digital typesetting===
In the 1970s, the publishers of [[TAOCP]] abandoned [[Monotype System|Monotype]] in favor of [[phototypesetting]]. Knuth became so frustrated with the inability of the latter system to approach the quality of the previous volumes, which were typeset using the older system, that he took time out to work on digital typesetting and created [[TeX]] and [[Metafont]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.kyotoprize.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12kA_lct_EN.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180127194502/http://www.kyotoprize.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/12kA_lct_EN.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2018-01-27 |title=Digital Typography (Kyoto Prize Lecture, 1996) |last=Knuth |first=Donald Erwin |year=1997 }}</ref>

===Literate programming===
While developing TeX, Knuth created a new methodology of programming, which he called [[literate programming]], because he believed that programmers should think of programs as works of literature:

{{blockquote|Instead of imagining that our main task is to instruct a computer what to do, let us concentrate rather on explaining to human beings what we want a computer to do.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.literateprogramming.com/knuthweb.pdf |title=Literate Programming |last=Knuth |first=Donald Erwin |year=1984 |access-date=2020-03-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190819211815/http://www.literateprogramming.com/knuthweb.pdf |archive-date=2019-08-19 |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}

Knuth embodied the idea of literate programming in the [[WEB]] system. The same WEB source is used to ''weave'' a TeX file, and to ''tangle'' a [[Pascal (programming language)|Pascal]] source file. These in their turn produce a readable description of the program and an executable binary respectively. A later iteration of the system, [[CWEB]], replaces Pascal with [[C (programming language)|C]], [[C++]], and [[Java (programming language)|Java]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/cweb.html|title=Knuth and Levy: CWEB}}</ref>

Knuth used WEB to program TeX and METAFONT, and published both programs as books, both originally published the same year: ''TeX: The Program'' (1986); and ''METAFONT: The Program'' (1986).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/abcde.html |title=Knuth: Computers and Typesetting |website=www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu |access-date=2019-07-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411233455/https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/abcde.html |archive-date=2019-04-11 |date=2019-04-11 |url-status=dead |first=Donald |last=Knuth }}</ref>  Around the same time, [[LaTeX]], the now-widely adopted macro package based on TeX, was first developed by [[Leslie Lamport]], who later published its first user manual in 1986.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lamport |first=Leslie |url=https://archive.org/details/latex00lesl |title=LATEX : a document preparation system |date=1986 |publisher=Addison-Wesley Pub. Co |isbn=020115790X |oclc=12550262 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

==Personal life==
Donald Knuth married Nancy Jill Carter on 24 June 1961, while he was a graduate student at the California Institute of Technology. They have two children: John Martin Knuth and Jennifer Sierra Knuth.<ref name="OConnerEtRobertson">{{cite web |url=http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Knuth.html |title=Donald Ervin Knuth |publisher=[[University of St Andrews]] |first1=J. J. |last1=O'Connor |first2=E. F. |last2=Robertson |date=2015 |access-date=October 20, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171005220701/http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Knuth.html |archive-date=October 5, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Knuth gives informal lectures a few times a year at [[Stanford University]], which he calls "Computer Musings". He was a visiting professor at the [[Oxford University Department of Computer Science]] in the United Kingdom until 2017 and an Honorary Fellow of [[Magdalen College, Oxford|Magdalen College]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Professor Donald Knuth |url=http://www.magd.ox.ac.uk/whos-here/fellows-and-lecturers/fellows/knuthd |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110104142353/http://www.magd.ox.ac.uk/whos-here/fellows-and-lecturers/fellows/knuthd |archive-date=January 4, 2011 |access-date=December 6, 2010 |publisher=Magdalen College |df=mdy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=October 30, 2014 |title=Notices |url=https://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/2014-2015/30october2014-no5075/notices/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150515081159/http://www.ox.ac.uk/gazette/2014-2015/30october2014-no5075/notices/ |archive-date=May 15, 2015 |access-date=May 21, 2015 |work=[[Oxford University Gazette]]}}</ref>

Knuth is an [[organist]] and a [[composer]]. He and his father served as organists for Lutheran congregations. Knuth and his wife have a 16-rank organ in their home.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Organ of Don and Jill Knuth |url=https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/organ.html |access-date=11 January 2023 |via=Stanford.edu}}</ref> In 2016 he completed a piece for organ, ''Fantasia Apocalyptica'', which he calls a "translation of the Greek text of the [[Book of Revelation|Revelation of Saint John the Divine]] into music". It was premièred in [[Sweden]] on January 10, 2018.<ref>{{cite news |last=de Groot |first=Martin |date=November 3, 2018 |title=Arts and Culture: A polymath brings his genius to bear on a multimedia work for pipe organ |work=[[Waterloo Region Record]] |url=https://www.therecord.com/whatson-story/9003680-arts-and-culture-a-polymath-brings-his-genius-to-bear-on-a-multimedia-work-for-pipe-organ/}}</ref>

===Chinese name===
Knuth's [[Chinese name]] is [[Gao (surname)|Gao]] Dena ({{lang-zh|s=高德纳|t=高德納|p=Gāo Dénà}}).<ref>{{cite journal |issn=0896-3207 |journal=[[TUGboat]] |author-last=Reutenauer |author-first=Arthur |pages=68–72 |title=A brief history of TeX, volume II}}</ref><ref name="faq"/> He was [[Phono-semantic matching|given]] this name in 1977 by [[Frances Yao]] shortly before making a three-week trip to China.<ref name="faq">{{cite web |url=https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/faq.html |title=Frequently Asked Questions |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |work=Home page |publisher=[[Stanford University]] |access-date=2010-11-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803223521/https://www.cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/faq.html |archive-date=August 3, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="The Art of Computer Programming"/> In the 1980 Chinese translation of Volume 1 of ''The Art of Computer Programming'' ({{lang-zh|s=计算机程序设计艺术|t=計算機程式設計藝術|p=Jìsuànjī chéngxù shèjì yìshù}}), Knuth explains that he embraced his Chinese name because he wanted to be known by the growing numbers of computer programmers in China at the time. In 1989, his Chinese name was placed atop the ''Journal of Computer Science and Technology''{{'s}} header, which Knuth says "makes me feel close to all Chinese people although I cannot speak your language".<ref name="The Art of Computer Programming">{{cite book |author-last=Knuth |author-first=Donald Ervin |trans-title=The Art of Computer Programming |translator1-last=Guan |translator1-first=JiWen |translator2-last=Su |translator2-first=Yunlin |title=计算机程序设计技巧 (Ji suan ji cheng xu she ji ji qiao) |publisher=Defense Industry Publishing Co. |date=1980 |location=Beijing |quote=I fondly hope that many Chinese computer programmers will learn to recognize my Chinese name Gao Dena, which was given to me by Francis Yao just before I visited your country in 1977. I still have very fond memories of that three-week visit, and I have been glad to see Gao Dena on the masthead of the ''Journal of Computer Science and Technology'' since 1989. This name makes me feel close to all Chinese people although I cannot speak your language.}}</ref>

===Humor===
[[File:knuth-check2.png|thumb|right|One of [[Knuth reward check|Knuth's reward checks]]]]
Knuth used to pay a [[finder's fee]] of $2.56 for any typographical errors or mistakes discovered in his books, because "256 pennies is one [[hexadecimal]] dollar", and $0.32 for "valuable suggestions". According to an article in the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]'s ''Technology Review'', these [[Knuth reward check]]s are "among computerdom's most prized trophies". Knuth had to stop sending real checks in 2008 due to bank fraud, and now gives each error finder a "certificate of deposit" from a publicly listed balance in his fictitious "Bank of [[San Serriffe]]".<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://www.technologyreview.com/1999/09/01/236540/rewriting-the-bible-in-0s-and-1s/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220709180448/https://www.technologyreview.com/1999/09/01/236540/rewriting-the-bible-in-0s-and-1s/ |url-status=live |archive-date=2022-07-09 |title=Rewriting the Bible in 0s and 1s |journal=[[Technology Review]] }}</ref>

He once warned a correspondent, "Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it."<ref name="faq"/>

Knuth published his first "scientific" article in a school magazine in 1957 under the title "The [[Potrzebie]] System of Weights and Measures". In it, he defined the [[fundamental unit]] of [[length]] as the thickness of ''[[Mad (magazine)|Mad]]'' No. 26, and named the fundamental unit of [[force]] "whatmeworry". ''Mad'' published the article in issue No. 33 (June 1957).<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |title=The Potrzebie System of Weights & Measures |url=https://www.madcoversite.com/mad033.html |magazine=Mad Magazine |date=June 1957 |issue=33 |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181106194253/https://madcoversite.com/mad033.html |archive-date=November 6, 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="kidder">{{cite book |title=A Truck Full of Money |last=Kidder |first=Tracy |author-link=Tracy Kidder |publisher=[[Random House]] |page=68 |date=2016 |isbn=9780812995244}}</ref>

To demonstrate the concept of [[recursion]], Knuth intentionally referred "Circular definition" and "Definition, circular" to each other in the index of ''[[The Art of Computer Programming]], Volume 1''.

The preface of ''[[Concrete Mathematics]]'' has the following paragraph:{{blockquote|When DEK taught Concrete Mathematics at Stanford for the first time, he explained the somewhat strange title by saying that it was his attempt to teach a math course that was hard instead of soft.  He announced that, contrary to the expectations of his colleagues, he was ''not'' going to teach the Theory of Aggregates, nor [[Stone's representation theorem for Boolean algebras|Stone's Embedding Theorem]], nor even the [[Stone–Čech compactification]]. (Several students from the civil engineering department got up and quietly left the room.)}}

At the TUG 2010 Conference, Knuth announced a satirical [[XML]]-based successor to TeX, titled "iTeX" ({{IPA|en|iː˨˩˦tɛks˧˥⸨bell⸩|pron|generic=yes}}, spoken while ringing a bell), which would support features such as arbitrarily scaled irrational units, [[3D printing]], input from seismographs and heart monitors, animation, and stereophonic sound.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://river-valley.zeeba.tv/media/conferences/tug-2010/Don-Knuth/ | type=conference panel video|title=TUG 2010|year=2010 |first=Don |last=Knuth |publisher=Zeeba TV  |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160325191535/http://river-valley.zeeba.tv/media/conferences/tug-2010/Don-Knuth/ |archive-date=March 25, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |type=video recording |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |url=http://river-valley.zeeba.tv/an-earthshaking-announcement/ |publisher=Zeeba TV |title=An Earth-shaking announcement}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |year=2010 |journal=[[TUGboat]] |volume=31 |title=An Earthshaking Announcement |pages=121–24 |issue=2 |issn=0896-3207 |url=https://tug.org/TUGboat/tb31-2/tb98knut.pdf |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190413164834/http://www.tug.org/TUGboat/tb31-2/tb98knut.pdf |archive-date=April 13, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>

==Awards and honors==
In 1971, Knuth received the first [[Association for Computing Machinery|ACM]] [[Grace Murray Hopper Award]].<ref name="Turing Award" /> He has received various other awards, including the [[Turing Award]], the [[National Medal of Science]], the [[John von Neumann Medal]], and the [[Kyoto Prize]].<ref name="Turing Award" />

Knuth was elected a Distinguished Fellow of the British Computer Society (DFBCS) in 1980 in recognition of his contributions to the field of computer science.<ref name=BCS>{{cite web| title=Roll of Distinguished Fellows|author=Anon|year=2016| url=http://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc/1650| publisher=British Computer Society| access-date=2014-09-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304025814/http://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc/1650|archive-date=2016-03-04}}</ref>

In 1990, he was awarded the one-of-a-kind academic title ''Professor of The Art of Computer Programming''; the title has since been revised to ''Professor [[Emeritus]] of The Art of Computer Programming''.

Knuth was elected to the [[National Academy of Sciences]] in 1975. He was also elected a member of the [[National Academy of Engineering]] in 1981 for organizing vast subject areas of computer science so that they are accessible to all segments of the computing community. In 1992, he became an associate of the [[French Academy of Sciences]]. Also that year, he retired from regular research and teaching at [[Stanford University]] in order to finish ''[[The Art of Computer Programming]]''. He was elected a [[List of Fellows of the Royal Society elected in 2003|Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 2003]].<ref name=formemrs/>

Knuth was elected as a Fellow (first class of Fellows) of the [[Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics]] in 2009 for his outstanding contributions to mathematics.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.siam.org/Prizes-Recognition/Fellows-Program/All-SIAM-Fellows/Class-of-2009 |title=Fellows |year=2009 |publisher=Siam |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190421024152/https://www.siam.org/Prizes-Recognition/Fellows-Program/All-SIAM-Fellows/Class-of-2009 |archive-date=April 21, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> He is a member of the [[Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dnva.no/c26849/artikkel/vis.html?tid=40116 |title=Gruppe 1: Matematiske fag |publisher=[[Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters]] |language=no |access-date=October 7, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131110152102/http://www.dnva.no/c26849/artikkel/vis.html?tid=40116 |archive-date=November 10, 2013 |df=mdy }}</ref> In 2012, he became a fellow of the [[American Mathematical Society]]<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ams.org/cgi-bin/fellows/fellows.cgi |title=Fellows of the American Mathematical Society |access-date=December 14, 2022}}</ref> and a member of the [[American Philosophical Society]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Donald+E.+Knuth&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-03-19|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref> Other awards and honors include:
{{div col|colwidth=35em}}
* First [[Association for Computing Machinery|ACM]] [[Grace Murray Hopper Award]], 1971<ref name="Turing Award" />
* [[Turing Award]], 1974<ref name="Turing Award" />
* [[Lester R. Ford Award]], 1975<ref>{{cite journal |author=Knuth, D. E. |title=Computer science and its relation to mathematics |journal=Amer. Math. Monthly |volume=81 |issue=4 |year=1974 |pages=323–343 |url=https://www.maa.org/programs/maa-awards/writing-awards/computer-science-and-its-relation-to-mathematics |doi=10.2307/2318994 |jstor=2318994 |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190220124259/https://www.maa.org/programs/maa-awards/writing-awards/computer-science-and-its-relation-to-mathematics |archive-date=February 20, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> and 1993<ref>{{cite journal |author=Knuth, D. E. |title=Two notes on notation |journal=Amer. Math. Monthly |volume=99 |issue=5 |year=1992 |pages=403–422 |url=https://www.maa.org/programs/maa-awards/writing-awards/two-notes-on-notation |doi=10.2307/2325085 |arxiv=math/9205211 |jstor=2325085 |bibcode=1992math......5211K |s2cid=119584305 |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190220182804/https://www.maa.org/programs/maa-awards/writing-awards/two-notes-on-notation |archive-date=February 20, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* [[Josiah Willard Gibbs Lectureship|Josiah Willard Gibbs Lecturer]], 1978<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.ams.org/meetings/lectures/meet-gibbs-lect |title=Josiah Willard Gibbs Lectures |website=American Mathematical Society |access-date=October 15, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161007131854/http://www.ams.org/meetings/lectures/meet-gibbs-lect |archive-date=October 7, 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |author=Knuth, Donald E. |title=Mathematical typography |year=1979 |journal=Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. (N.S.) |volume=1 |issue=2 |pages=337–372 |mr=520078 |doi=10.1090/s0273-0979-1979-14598-1 |url=https://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1979-01-02/S0273-0979-1979-14598-1/S0273-0979-1979-14598-1.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150928160236/http://www.ams.org/journals/bull/1979-01-02/S0273-0979-1979-14598-1/S0273-0979-1979-14598-1.pdf |archive-date=2015-09-28 |url-status=live |access-date=June 1, 2022 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
* [[National Medal of Science]], 1979<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/recip_details.jsp?recip_id=198|title=The President's National Medal of Science: Recipient Details - NSF - National Science Foundation|website=www.nsf.gov|access-date=March 26, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181123140123/https://www.nsf.gov/od/nms/recip_details.jsp?recip_id=198|archive-date=November 23, 2018|url-status=live}}</ref>
* Golden Plate Award of the [[Academy of Achievement|American Academy of Achievement]], 1985<ref>{{cite web|title= Golden Plate Awardees of the American Academy of Achievement |website=www.achievement.org|publisher=[[American Academy of Achievement]]|url=https://achievement.org/our-history/golden-plate-awards/#science-exploration}}</ref>
* [[Franklin Medal]], 1988<ref name="Turing Award" />
* [[John von Neumann Medal]], 1995<ref name="Turing Award" />
* [[Harvey Prize]] from the [[Technion – Israel Institute of Technology|Technion]], 1995<ref>{{Cite web |title=Harvey |url=http://www.admin.technion.ac.il/harvey/1995-2.html |year=1995 |publisher=Technion |place=[[Israel|IL]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110721134544/http://www.admin.technion.ac.il/harvey/1995-2.html |archive-date=July 21, 2011 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>
* [[Kyoto Prize]], 1996<ref name="Turing Award" />
* Fellow of the [[Computer History Museum]] "for his fundamental early work in the history of computing algorithms, development of the TeX typesetting language, and for major contributions to mathematics and computer science." 1998<ref name=ComputerHistory>{{Cite web |title=Donald Knuth: 1998 Fellow |url=https://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/hall/donald-knuth/ |publisher=[[Computer History Museum]] |date=2015 |access-date=March 12, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180313093832/http://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/hall/donald-knuth/ |archive-date=March 13, 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* Asteroid [[21656 Knuth]], named in his honor in May 2001<ref name="MPC-object" /><ref name="MPC-Circulars-Archive" />
* Katayanagi Prize, 2010<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~katayanagi/ |title=Katayanagi |publisher=CMU |access-date=January 6, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190615065112/http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~katayanagi/ |archive-date=June 15, 2019 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* [[BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award]] in the category of Information and Communication Technologies, 2010<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/tlfu/ing/microsites/premios/fronteras/galardonados/2010/informacion.jsp |author=Galardonados |language=es |place=[[Spain|ES]] |publisher=FBBVA |year=2010 |title=Fronteras |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160819042332/http://www.fbbva.es/TLFU/tlfu/ing/microsites/premios/fronteras/galardonados/2010/informacion.jsp |archive-date=August 19, 2016 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>
* [[Turing Lecture]], 2011
* [[Stanford University School of Engineering]] Hero Award, 2011<ref>{{Cite news |title=Stanford's Don Knuth, a pioneering hero of computer programming |work=Stanford Report |first=Andrew |last=Myers |date=June 1, 2001 |url=https://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/june/knuth-engineering-hero-060111.html |access-date=June 27, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110623080640/http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/june/knuth-engineering-hero-060111.html |archive-date=June 23, 2011 |url-status=live }}</ref>
* [[Flajolet Lecture Prize]], 2014<ref name = lecture2014>{{Cite web|url=https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/flaj2014.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180316101119/https://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/flaj2014.pdf |archive-date=2018-03-16 |url-status=live|title=Problems That Philippe Would Have Loved|first=Donald|last=Knuth|publisher=Stanford University|access-date = 23 March 2022}}</ref>
{{div col end}}

==Publications==
A short list of his publications include:<ref name = "books">{{Cite web |type=list |url=https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/books.html |title=Books |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |work=Home page |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803225102/https://www.cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/books.html |archive-date=August 3, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>

''The Art of Computer Programming'':
{{refbegin}}
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=The Art of Computer Programming |volume=1: Fundamental Algorithms |edition=3rd |year=1997 |publisher=Addison-Wesley Professional |isbn=978-0-201-89683-1 |title-link=The Art of Computer Programming}}
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=The Art of Computer Programming |volume=2: Seminumerical Algorithms |edition=3rd |year=1997 |publisher=Addison-Wesley Professional |isbn=978-0-201-89684-8 |title-link=The Art of Computer Programming}}
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=The Art of Computer Programming |volume=3: Sorting and Searching |edition=2nd |year=1998 |publisher=Addison-Wesley Professional |isbn=978-0-201-89685-5 |title-link=The Art of Computer Programming}}
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=The Art of Computer Programming |volume=4A: Combinatorial Algorithms, Part 1 |year=2011 |publisher=Addison-Wesley Professional |isbn=978-0-201-03804-0 |title-link=The Art of Computer Programming}}
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=The Art of Computer Programming |volume=4B: Combinatorial Algorithms, Part 2 |year=2022 |publisher=Addison-Wesley Professional |isbn=978-0-201-03806-4 |title-link=The Art of Computer Programming}}
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=MMIX—A RISC Computer for the New Millennium |volume=1, Fascicle 1 |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-201-85392-6 |title-link=MMIX}}
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=The Art of Computer Programming |volume=4, Fascicle 0: Introduction to Combinatorial Algorithms and Boolean Functions |year=2008 |publisher=Addison-Wesley |isbn=978-0-321-53496-5}}
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=The Art of Computer Programming |volume=4, Fascicle 1: Bitwise Tricks & Techniques; Binary Decision Diagrams |year=2009 |publisher=Addison-Wesley |isbn=978-0-321-58050-4}}
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=The Art of Computer Programming |volume=4, Fascicle 2: Generating All Tuples and Permutations |year=2005 |publisher=Addison-Wesley |isbn=978-0-201-85393-3}}
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=The Art of Computer Programming |volume=4, Fascicle 3: Generating All Combinations and Partitions |year=2005 |publisher=Addison-Wesley |isbn=978-0-201-85394-0}}
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=The Art of Computer Programming |volume=4, Fascicle 4: Generating All Trees—History of Combinatorial Generation |year=2006 |publisher=Addison-Wesley |isbn=978-0-321-33570-8}}
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=The Art of Computer Programming |volume=4, Fascicle 5: Mathematical Preliminaries Redux; Backtracking; Dancing Links |year=2018 |publisher=Addison-Wesley |isbn=978-0-134-67179-6}}
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=The Art of Computer Programming |volume=4, Fascicle 6: Satisfiability |year=2015 |publisher=Addison-Wesley |isbn=978-0-134-39760-3}}
#{{Cite book |last=Knuth |first=Donald E. |title=The Art of Computer Programming |publisher=Addison-Wesley |year=2025 |isbn=978-0-135-32824-8 |volume=4, Fascicle 7: Constraint Satisfaction |author-mask=3}}{{refend}}

''Computers and Typesetting'' (all books are hardcover unless otherwise noted):
{{refbegin}}
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=Computers & Typesetting |volume=A, The TeXbook |place=Reading, [[Massachusetts|MA]] |publisher=Addison-Wesley |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-201-13447-6}}, x+483pp.
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=Computers & Typesetting |volume=A, The TeXbook |place=Reading, [[Massachusetts|MA]] |publisher=Addison-Wesley |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-201-13448-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/texbook00dona}} (softcover).
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=Computers & Typesetting |volume=B, TeX: The Program |place=Reading, [[Massachusetts|MA]] |publisher=Addison-Wesley |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-201-13437-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/texprogram00knut}}, xviii+600pp.
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=Computers & Typesetting |volume=C, The METAFONTbook |place=Reading, [[Massachusetts|MA]] |publisher=Addison-Wesley |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-201-13445-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/metafontbook00knut}}, xii+361pp.
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=Computers & Typesetting |volume=C, The METAFONTbook |place=Reading, [[Massachusetts|MA]] |publisher=Addison-Wesley |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-201-13444-5 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/metafontbook00knut}} (softcover).
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=Computers & Typesetting |volume=D, METAFONT: The Program |place=Reading, [[Massachusetts|MA]] |publisher=Addison-Wesley |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-201-13438-4}}, xviii+566pp.
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=Computers & Typesetting |volume=E, Computer Modern Typefaces |place=Reading, [[Massachusetts|MA]] |publisher=Addison-Wesley |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-201-13446-9}}, xvi+588pp.
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=Computers & Typesetting |volume=A-E Boxed Set |place=Reading, [[Massachusetts|MA]] |publisher=Addison-Wesley |year=2000 |isbn=978-0-201-73416-4}}
{{refend}}

Books of collected papers:
{{refbegin}}
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth | author-mask = 3 |title=Literate Programming |place=Stanford, [[California|CA]] |publisher=[[Stanford University Centers and Institutes#Center for the Study of Language and Information|Center for the Study of Language and Information]]—CSLI |series=Lecture Notes |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-937073-80-3 |issue=27|title-link=Literate Programming }}<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/lp.html |title=Literate Programming |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |work=Home page |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803223349/https://www.cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/lp.html |archive-date=August 3, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth | author-mask = 3 |title=Selected Papers on Computer Science |place=Stanford, [[California|CA]] |publisher=Center for the Study of Language and Information—CSLI |series=Lecture Notes |year=1996 |isbn=978-1-881526-91-9 |issue=59}}<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/cs.html |title=Selected Papers on Computer Science |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |work=Home page |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803223853/https://www.cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/cs.html |archive-date=August 3, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=Digital Typography |place=Stanford, [[California|CA]] |publisher=Center for the Study of Language and Information—CSLI |series=Lecture Notes |year=1999 |isbn=978-1-57586-010-7 |issue=78 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/digitaltypograph0000knut }}<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/dt.html |title=Digital Typography |volume=249 |issue=2 |pages=106–119 |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |journal=Scientific American |bibcode=1983SciAm.249b.106B |year=1983 |doi=10.1038/scientificamerican0883-106 |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190505113549/https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/dt.html |archive-date=May 5, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=Selected Papers on Analysis of Algorithms |place=Stanford, [[California|CA]] |publisher=Center for the Study of Language and Information—CSLI |series=Lecture Notes |year=2000 |isbn=978-1-57586-212-5 |issue=102 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/selectedpaperson0000knut }}<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/aa.html |title=Selected Papers on Analysis of Algorithms |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |work=Home page |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803223905/https://www.cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/aa.html |archive-date=August 3, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth | author-mask = 3 |title=Selected Papers on Computer Languages |place=Stanford, [[California|CA]] |publisher=Center for the Study of Language and Information—CSLI |series=Lecture Notes |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-57586-381-8 |issue=139}}, {{isbn|1-57586-382-0}} (paperback)<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/cl.html |title=Selected Papers on Computer Languages |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |work=Home page |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803224057/https://www.cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/cl.html |archive-date=August 3, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>
# {{Cite book |first=Donald E. |last=Knuth |author-mask=3 |title=Selected Papers on Discrete Mathematics |place=Stanford, [[California|CA]] |publisher=Center for the Study of Language and Information—CSLI |series=Lecture Notes |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-57586-249-1 |issue=106 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/selectedpaperson0000knut_d0j2 }}, {{isbn|1-57586-248-4}} (paperback)<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/dm.html |title=Selected Papers on Discrete Mathematics |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |work=Home page |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803224050/https://www.cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/dm.html |archive-date=August 3, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>
# Donald E. Knuth, Selected Papers on Design of Algorithms (Stanford, California: Center for the Study of Language and Information—CSLI Lecture Notes, no. 191), 2010. {{isbn|1-57586-583-1}} (cloth), {{isbn|1-57586-582-3}} (paperback)<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/da.html |title=Selected Papers on Design of Algorithms |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |work=Home page |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803224327/https://www.cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/da.html |archive-date=August 3, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>
# Donald E. Knuth, Selected Papers on Fun and Games (Stanford, California: Center for the Study of Language and Information—CSLI Lecture Notes, no. 192), 2011. {{isbn|978-1-57586-585-0}} (cloth), {{isbn|978-1-57586-584-3}} (paperback)<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/fg.html |title=Selected Papers on Fun and Games |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |work=Home page |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803224253/https://www.cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/fg.html |archive-date=August 3, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>
# Donald E. Knuth, Companion to the Papers of Donald Knuth (Stanford, California: Center for the Study of Language and Information—CSLI Lecture Notes, no. 202), 2011. {{isbn|978-1-57586-635-2}} (cloth), {{isbn|978-1-57586-634-5}} (paperback)<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/cp.html |title=Companion to the Papers of Donald Knuth |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |work=Home page |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803225209/https://www.cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/cp.html |archive-date=August 3, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>
{{refend}}

Other books:
{{refbegin}}
# {{Cite book |last1=Graham |first1=Ronald L |author-link1=Ronald L. Graham |last2=Knuth |first2=Donald E. |last3=Patashnik |first3=Oren |author-link3=Oren Patashnik |title=Concrete mathematics: A foundation for computer science |edition=Second |publisher=Addison-Wesley |location=Reading, MA |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-201-55802-9 |mr=1397498|title-link=Concrete Mathematics }}  xiv+657 pp.
# {{Cite book |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |title=Surreal numbers: how two ex-students turned on to pure mathematics and found total happiness: a mathematical novelette |year=1974 |publisher=Addison-Wesley |isbn=978-0-201-03812-5}}<ref name=surreal>{{Cite web |url=https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/sn.html |title=Surreal numbers |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |work=Home page |access-date=March 26, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190803224012/https://www.cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/sn.html |archive-date=August 3, 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>
# Donald E. Knuth, The Stanford GraphBase: A Platform for Combinatorial Computing (New York, ACM Press) 1993. second paperback printing 2009. {{isbn|0-321-60632-9}}
# Donald E. Knuth, 3:16 Bible Texts Illuminated (Madison, Wisconsin: A-R Editions), 1990. {{isbn|0-89579-252-4}}
# Donald E. Knuth, [[Things a Computer Scientist Rarely Talks About]] (Center for the Study of Language and Information—CSLI Lecture Notes no 136), 2001. {{isbn|1-57586-326-X}}
# Donald E. Knuth, MMIXware: A RISC Computer for the Third Millennium (Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag— Lecture Notes in Computer Science, no. 1750), 1999. viii+550pp. {{isbn|978-3-540-66938-8}}
# Donald E. Knuth and Silvio Levy, The CWEB System of Structured Documentation (Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley), 1993. iv+227pp. {{isbn|0-201-57569-8}}. Third printing 2001 with hypertext support, ii + 237 pp.
# Donald E. Knuth, Tracy L. Larrabee, and Paul M. Roberts, Mathematical Writing (Washington, D.C.: Mathematical Association of America), 1989. ii+115pp {{isbn|978-0883850633}}
# Daniel H. Greene and Donald E. Knuth, Mathematics for the Analysis of Algorithms (Boston: Birkhäuser), 1990. viii+132pp. {{isbn|978-0817647285}}
# Donald E. Knuth, {{lang|fr|Mariages Stables: et leurs relations avec d'autres problèmes combinatoires (Montréal: Les Presses de l'Université de Montréal)}}, 1976. 106pp. {{isbn|978-0840503428}}
# Donald E. Knuth, Stable Marriage and Its Relation to Other Combinatorial Problems: An Introduction to the Mathematical Analysis of Algorithms. {{isbn|978-0821806036}}
# Donald E. Knuth, Axioms and Hulls (Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag—Lecture Notes in Computer Science, no. 606), 1992. ix+109pp. {{isbn|3-540-55611-7}}
{{refend}}

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
* [[-yllion]]
* [[Attribute grammar]]
* [[CC system]]
* [[Dancing Links]]
* [[Knuth–Bendix completion algorithm]]
* [[Knuth Prize]]
* [[Knuth's Algorithm X]]
* [[Knuth's Simpath algorithm]]
* [[Knuth's up-arrow notation]]
* [[Knuth–Morris–Pratt algorithm]]
* [[Dragon curve#Twindragon|Davis–Knuth dragon]]
* [[Bender–Knuth involution]]
* [[TPK algorithm]]
* [[Fisher–Yates shuffle]]
* [[Robinson–Schensted–Knuth correspondence]]
* [[Man or boy test]]
* [[Plactic monoid]]
* [[Quater-imaginary base]]
* [[Triangular number]]
* [[The Complexity of Songs]]
* [[Uniform binary search]]
* [[List of pioneers in computer science]]
* [[List of scholars on the relationship between religion and science]]
{{div col end}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em|refs=

<ref name="MPC-object">{{cite web
  |title      = 21656 Knuth (1999 PX1)
  |work      = Minor Planet Center
  |url      = https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=21656
  |access-date      = 23 February 2019
  |archive-url      = https://web.archive.org/web/20160508064552/http://minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?object_id=21656
  |archive-date      = May 8, 2016
  |url-status      = live
  }}</ref>

<ref name="MPC-Circulars-Archive">{{cite web
  |title      = MPC/MPO/MPS Archive
  |work      = Minor Planet Center
  |url      = https://www.minorplanetcenter.net/iau/ECS/MPCArchive/MPCArchive_TBL.html
  |access-date      = 23 February 2019
  |archive-url      = https://web.archive.org/web/20190305034952/https://minorplanetcenter.net/iau/ECS/MPCArchive/MPCArchive_TBL.html
  |archive-date      = March 5, 2019
  |url-status      = live
  }}</ref>

}} <!-- end of reflist -->

== Bibliography ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite web |url = https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/ |title=Home page |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |publisher=[[Stanford University]] }}
* {{cite web |last=Knuth |first=Donald Ervin |title = The Art of Computer Programming (TAOCP) |url = https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/taocp.html |access-date=May 20, 2012}}
* {{cite journal |url=http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2006/mayjun/features/knuth.html |title=Love at First Byte |first1=Kara |last1=Platoni |last2=Archibald |first2=Timothy |journal=Stanford Magazine |date=May–June 2006 |ref={{Harvid|Platoni|2006}} |access-date=May 18, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060925022700/http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2006/mayjun/features/knuth.html |archive-date=September 25, 2006 |url-status=dead }}
{{refend}}

==External links==
{{sister project links|d=Q17457|commons=category:Donald Ervin Knuth|s=no|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|wikt=no|species=no}}
* [https://cs.stanford.edu/~knuth/ Donald Knuth's home page] at [[Stanford University]].
* {{Cite interview |url=https://conservancy.umn.edu/handle/11299/107413 |title=Donald E. Knuth Interview |publisher=[[Charles Babbage Institute]], University of Minnesota|date=2001-11-08 |last1=Knuth |first1=Donald Ervin |interviewer-first=Philip L. |interviewer-last=Frana }} Knuth discusses software patenting, [[structured programming]], collaboration and his development of [[TeX]].
* {{MathGenealogy |id =10416}}
* {{MacTutor Biography|id =Knuth}}
* {{DBLP|name=Donald E. Knuth}}
* {{IMSLP|id=Knuth, Donald}}
* {{YouTube|CDokMxVtB3k|Interview at Stanford University "Donald Knuth&nbsp;– All Questions Answered"}}
* [https://www.informs.org/content/view/full/268483 Biography of Donald Knuth] from the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20191211014433/http://scpd.stanford.edu/free-stuff/engineering-archives/donald-e-knuth-lectures Donald Ervin Knuth – Stanford Lectures (Archive)]
* [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BdBfsXbST8 Interview with Donald Knuth] by [[Lex Fridman]]
* Siobhan Roberts, [https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/17/science/donald-knuth-computers-algorithms-programming.html The Yoda of Silicon Valley]. ''[[The New York Times]]'', 17 December 2018.

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