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Alan Jay Perlis (born April 1, 1922, Pittsburgh, Pa., U.S.—died Feb. 7, 1990, New Haven, Conn.) was an American mathematician and computer scientist. He was the first winner, in 1966, of the A.M. Turing Award, given by the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) and recognized internationally as the highest honour in computer science. In particular, Perlis was cited for “his influence in the area of advanced programming techniques and compiler construction.” Perlis was one of...