Haskell Brooks Curry - An American mathematician, born Sept. 12, 1900, died Sept. 1, 1982. His research in logic led to his theory of formal systems and processes as well as to the formulation of a
logical calculus using inferential rules. He taught at
Harvard University,
Princeton University, and
Pennsylvania State University. Curry worked on the first electronic computer,
ENIAC, while on leave from Penn State during
World War II. Curry's research in the 1950s into the foundations of combinatory logic was applied in 1986 in the Mitre Corporation's Curry Chip, an innovative piece of computer hardware based on Curry's concept of "combinators." He was the author of
Combinatory Logic (1958), dealing with a system of formal logic that he developed in the 1930s, and
Foundations of Mathematical Logic (1963).
The programming lanugage Haskell is named for him, as is the idea of currying functions.
Sources: Encyclopedia Brittanica, Penn State University History