Donald Knuth is a god. Someone recently told me that he was at an event where everyone in the room were well known heavy hitters, and when Donald came in the room they all quietened down.
The Art of Computer Programming is an amazing tomb, and thus he gets the award:
Donald Ervin Knuth is a renowned computer scientist and Professor Emeritus of the Art of Computer Programming[2] at Stanford University.
Author of the seminal multi-volume work The Art of Computer Programming (”TAOCP”), Knuth has been called the “father” of the analysis of algorithms, contributing to the development of, and systematizing formal mathematical techniques for, the rigorous analysis of the computational complexity of algorithms, and in the process popularizing asymptotic notation.
In addition to fundamental contributions in several branches of theoretical computer science, Knuth is also the creator of the TeX computer typesetting system, the related METAFONT font definition language and rendering system, and the Computer Modern family of typefaces.
A prolific writer and scholar, Knuth is also creator of the WEB/CWEB computer programming systems designed to encourage and facilitate literate programming, as well as designer of the MMIX instruction set architecture.
What about the other awards?
- Community Waiting for an Update
- Biggest Hack for a Language Runtime
- Most Original Name for a New Language
- Most Format Restrictive Language
- Best Comeback for a Programming Language
- Most Overloaded Product Name
Got some ideas for awards you would give?
