Charles Babbage
Dec 26 1792 - Oct 18 1871Born Teignmouth, England. Died London, England.

Babbage graduated from Cambridge and at the early age of 24 was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. In 1827 he became Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, a position he held for 12 years although Babbage never taught.
He originated the modern analytic computer. By 1834 he invented the principle of the analytical engine, the forerunner of the modern electronic computer.
In 1830 he published "Reflections on the Decline of Science in England", a controversial work that resulted in the formation, one year later, of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. In 1834 Babbage published his most influential work "On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures", in which he proposed an early form of operational research.
The computation of logarithms had made him aware of the inaccuracy of human calculation, and he became so obsessed with mechanical computation that he spent pounds 6000 in pursuit of it. A government grant of pounds 17000 was given but support withdrawn in 1842. Although Babbage never built an operational, mechanical computer, his design concepts have been proved correct and recently such a computer has been built following Babbage's own design criteria.