The name of the Soviet scientist Andrei Ershov is associated with the beginning of the development of programming and computer science in Russia. He led teams of researchers who were involved in the creation of the first Russian programming languages. Numerous scientific works by Ershov laid the foundations for the formation of the computing industry in the USSR and abroad.
Childhood and youth
A.P. Ershov was born on April 19, 1931 in Moscow. The boy grew up in a family of hereditary intellectuals. In their family there were many creative people - doctors, chemists, academicians. Pyotr Nikolaevich, the father of a future scientist, worked as a chemist, and his mother, first as a teacher and then as a librarian.
In 1937, the whole family moved to the city of Rubezhnoye (now Lugansk region in Ukraine), since Andrei's father was sent to work at a local chemical plant. There they lived for 6 years. When the German occupation began, the Ershovs moved to Kemerovo together with the evacuated chemical plant, which was later reorganized into an aniline-paint plant. At this enterprise, A.P. Ershov's father worked until retirement, his mother became a housewife. Later, a second son, Sergey, was born in Andrei's family.
Studying at the University
In 1949, A. Ershov graduated with honors from high school. Then he entered the Moscow State University at the Faculty of Physics and Technology. Even on a school bench, he was interested in nuclear physics.
However, a year later he had to transfer to another department - mechanical and mathematical. In the late 1940s. the famous session of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR took place, at which members of the Academy of Sciences branded "bourgeois" quantum and nuclear physics upon the establishment of the highest party leadership. As a result, part of the work in this direction was curtailed.
In the 4th year, the future founder of the Soviet school of programming successfully completed a term paper on the methodology of algorithmizing cycles. From this moment, the biography of Andrei Ershov is inextricably linked with this field of science.
In 1950, the first electronic computer (MESM) was created in the USSR and the young scientist became interested in programming. Three years later, while still a student at the Mechanics and Mathematics Department of Moscow State University, he began working at the Institute of Precision Mechanics and Computer Engineering, the walls of which subsequently formed one of the first teams of Soviet programmers.
First work
After graduating from university in 1954, he entered graduate school in the same field (computational mathematics). Its leader was Alexei Andreevich Lyapunov, one of the founders of Russian cybernetics. Soon A. Ershov became the head of the research group for the development of programs for the first Soviet electronic computers created by S. A. Lebedev and Yu.Ya. Bazilevsky. In 1955, his first work was published on his method for calculating inverse matrices.
In 1958, his monograph was published on the BESM program, which aroused great interest, including abroad. At this point, he had already prepared his dissertation on operator algorithms (arithmetic, logic, call forwarding, transfer, and others), but due to criticism of cybernetics as “pseudoscience,” he could defend himself only in 1962.
Thanks to outstanding scientific results and fruitful activities as a leader A.P. Ershov already in the late 1950s. became one of the leading domestic programmers of that time.
Moving to Novosibirsk
In 1957, a young scientist received an offer to go to work in the new Siberian branch of the Academy of Sciences. First, Andrei Petrovich Ershov led the organizational work to create a programming department at the Institute of Mathematics, continuing his work in Moscow. In 1960, he finally decided to move to Novosibirsk. In 1964, the computer center became an independent institution and a scientist was appointed its head.
Thanks to Andrei Petrovich Ershov, the Novosibirsk Academgorodok has become a leading center in cybernetics. He created a strong school of theoretical and system programming. This branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences in those days attracted young scientists with its large-scale research.
In 1968, he defended his doctoral dissertation on methods for constructing translators. After 2 years, he was elected a corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences in the field of mathematics, and in 1984 - its academician.
Programming languages
One of the merits of A.P. Ershov is that he attached great importance to programming languages and systems. The scientist participated in the creation of the Alpha language, which became an improved dialect of ALGOL - one of the first high-level languages common in those years in Europe. The advantage of the “Siberian” language, as the scientist called it, was the creation of complex arithmetic. The ability to operate with arrays and multidimensional variables was also implemented.
One of the first Ershov proposed the language construction of the loop and hash functions. When the most powerful Soviet computer, BESM-6, appeared in Akademgorodok, the scientist set about developing a modified language called Algibr (Alpha-Hybrid). He became the first cross-translator to translate from the source language into another. The program was issued on punched cards or punched tapes. Subsequently, for the implementation of packet data transmission within the operating system, the scientist was developed in 1970-1974. another language is Alpha 6.
The next step was the creation of a universal Beta programming processor that could analyze the properties of programs and was also used to develop input languages and optimizing translators. The programming languages created by Ershov became the basis for the modern translation method.
Educational activities
The teaching work of the scientist began at Moscow State University. Since 1961, he began to deal with the study of electronic computers and programming in school education. Andrei Ershov organized the School of Young Programmers, led the development of software for educational institutions, and also published a manual on the basics of computer science and a methodological manual for teachers.
At an international conference in Switzerland in 1981, he made a presentation on computer literacy. Ershov developed a plan for training programmers in universities of the USSR, combining fundamental and practical training. This scientist is considered one of the founders of school informatics. The last 10 years of his creative life he devoted precisely to the problems of education in the field of cybernetics.
Under his leadership, several candidates and doctors of science in the field of systemic and theoretical programming in various regions of the country “grew up”.
Scientific works
From 1955 to 1988 Scientists have published more than 200 books and articles on programming and related disciplines. Andrei Ershov was also a member of the editorial board of the popular science magazine "Quantum", participated in the development of a new periodical, "Microprocessor Tools and Systems." He published a large number of journal and newspaper publications aimed at popularizing his field of activity among the masses.
The works of this outstanding Soviet researcher were recognized in the international community of scientists. In 1965, he became a member of the Association of Computer Engineering, the oldest and largest international organization, uniting a large number of specialists in the computer field. And after 9 years he was recognized as an honorary member of a similar British society.
Andrey Ershov: contribution to computer science and awards
The scientist had a huge impact on the development of computer science in Russia. The term "computer science" itself appeared in our country on his initiative. In his work "On the subject of computer science", he outlined the range of tasks of the new science, its purpose and subject of study.
Since the late 1960s Andrei Ershov has become a key figure in domestic programming. For his services in this field of science, he was awarded several orders and medals of the Soviet Union during his lifetime, as well as the main prize of the USSR Academy of Sciences in applied mathematics (named after Academician Krylov).
Personal life
At the age of 21, Andrei Ershov married his classmate Nina Mikhailovna Stepanova. After successfully graduating from Moscow State University, she first worked as a programmer at this educational institution, and then as a senior laboratory assistant at the Institute of Mathematics of the Siberian Academic Town. In marriage, they had 2 children - son Vasily (b. 1953) and daughter Anna (b. 1959).
Ershov was not only an outstanding scientist and teacher, but also was fond of poetry, playing the guitar, sang, composed poetry. One of his favorite poets was R. Kipling, whose poems he translated from English into Russian.
At age 57, Ershov died after a serious illness. He was buried at the Cherbuzinsky cemetery, which is located on the territory of the Novosibirsk Academgorodok. In the institute he created, in memory of the scientist, his library and archive are kept.