Google doodle honours computer scientist Michael Dertouzos

New Delhi, Nov 5: Google Doodle, the search giant on Monday honoured Greek computer scientist Michael Leonidas Dertouzos on his birth anniversary

The doodle shows Dertouzos with a chalk in his hand, facing away from a black board. This picture is flanked by few other small pictures of computers and internet.

Born in Athens, Greece on this day in 1936, Dertouzos was the son of a concert pianist and an admiral in the Greek navy.

Upon graduation from Athens College, he attended the University of Arkansas on a Fulbright Scholarship and earned a Ph D from MIT, joining the faculty in 1968. He was the Director of MIT Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS) from 1974 to 2001.

During his tenure, MIT LCS did some groundbreaking work in ArpaNet, and RSA encryption, an algorithm used to ensure secure data transmission.

He later co-founded Computek Inc. in 1968 which created graphics and intelligent terminals with Marvin C. Lewis and Dr. Huber Graham

Dertouzos died on August 27, 2001. He was 64.