On January 1, 2024, computer science pioneer, Turing Award winner, and recipient of an honorary doctorate at the JKU, Prof. Niklaus Wirth, passed away shortly ahead of his 90th birthday. A true friend and JKU supporter, in 1993, the university presented Prof. Wirth with an honorary doctorate degree.

Born in Winterthur (Switzerland) on February 15, 1934, Niklaus Wirth studied electrical engineering at the ETH in Zurich before earning his doctorate degree in 1963 at the University of California in Berkeley and then working as an assistant professor at Stanford University. In 1968, he accepted a position as Professor of Computer Science at ETH Zurich. Wirth is best known as the developer of influential programming languages that include Pascal, Modula-2, and Oberon, as well as contributing significantly to advancements in the field of software engineering (step-by-step refinement, modularization, compiler construction), and hardware development (construction of the modern computers Lilith and Ceres, long before the introduction of the Apple Macintosh). He was the only German-speaking scholar in the field of computer science to be presented with the ACM Turing Award in 1984, one of the highest accolades in computer science. In 1988, he was presented with the IEEE Computer Society's Computer Pioneer Award, and in 1995, he received the Order Pour le Mérite for Sciences and Arts. In addition to a JKU honorary doctorate degree, he was presented with honorary doctorate degrees by the ETH Lausanne and the Universities of York, Laval (Quebec), Novosibirsk, and the British Open University.

Prof. Wirth maintained close ties to the JKU, starting with research partnerships during the 80s under Prof. Peter Rechenberg in which his work significantly influenced advancements at our university. Several Linz professors (Gustav Pomberger, Hanspeter Mössenböck, and Armin Biere, for example) spent years working at his institute at ETH Zurich, bringing Wirth’s ideas back to the JKU. Renowned for his hands-on, engineering approach to computer science, Wirth’s guiding principle was to "make it as simple as possible", an approach that sets him apart from developments in computer science today.

Niklaus Wirth, a leading figure in the field of computer science, has left his mark in the field since the very beginning. The area of computer sciences, and the JKU in particular, has lost a leading scientist, influential scholar, supporter, and friend.