Since 1995, Dr. Dobb's has presented its Excellence in Programming Award to individuals who, in the spirit of innovation and cooperation, have made significant contributions to the advancement of software development. The Excellence in Programming Award includes a $1,000 prize that is donated in the award winner's name to a charity of the winner's choice. More complete information about the recipients for a given year can be found in the links highlighted below.
Past Winners
2012
Ward Cunningham, inventor of the wiki, creator of the Fit testing framework, and co-designer of CRC cards. Interview with Ward Cunningham, Andrew Binstock, May 15, 2012.
2011
No award.
2010
No award.
2009
Scott Meyers, author of Effective C++, More Effective C++, and Effective STL. Dr. Dobb's Excellence in Programming Award 2009, Jonathan Erickson, March 15, 2009.
2008
Bjarne Stroustrup, creator of the C++ programming language. Dr. Dobb's Excellence in Programming Award 2008, Michael Swaine, March 7, 2008.
2007
Grady Booch, for contributions to object-oriented programming, software architecture, and modeling. Dr. Dobb's Excellence in Programming Award 2007, Michael Swaine, March 9, 2007.
2006
Bruce Schneier, contributions to cryptography and computer security. Dr. Dobb's Journal Excellence in Programming Award 2006, Jonathan Erickson, April 1, 2006.
2005
Guy L. Steele, Jr., for a lifetime of contributions to languages, tools, and operating systems. Dr. Dobb's Journal Excellence in Programming Award 2005, Jonathan Erickson, April 1, 2005.
2004
P.J. Plauger, author, substantive contributor to C and C++ standards. Dr. Dobb's Journal Excellence in Programming Award 2004, Jonathan Erickson, April 1, 2004.
2003
Don Chamberlin, database pioneer, creator of SQL. Dr. Dobb's Excellence in Programming Award 2003, Jonathan Erickson, April 1, 2003.
2002
Adele Goldberg, contributor to the Smalltalk language, author, founding CEO of ParcPlace Systems. Dan Ingalls, principal architect of Smalltalk virtual machines and kernel systems. Dr. Dobb's Excellence in Programming Awards 2002, Jonathan Erickson, May 1, 2002.
2001
Anders Hejlsberg, compiler writer, author of Turbo Pascal, Delphi, and C#. Dr. Dobb's Excellence in Programming Award 2001, Jonathan Erickson, May 1, 2001.
2000
Jon Bentley, researcher and author of Programming Pearls and More Programming Pearls. Dr. Dobb's Excellence in Programming Award 2000, Jonathan Erickson, April 1, 2000.
1999
Guido van Rossum, creator of the Python programming language. Donald Becker, chief investigator of the Beowulf Project, which achieved supercomputer performance using networks of inexpensive Linux-based PCs. Dr. Dobb's Journal Excellence in Programming Awards 1999, Jonathan Erickson, June 1, 1999.
1998
The "Gang of Four" — Richard Helm, Erich Gamma, Ralph Johnson, John Vlissides — authors of Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software (Addison-Wesley, 1995). Dr. Dobb's Journal's Excellence in Programming Awards 1998, Jonathan Erickson, March 1, 1998.
1997
Ron Rivest, cryptographer, co-creator of the RSA standard. Gary Kildall, pioneering author of the CP/M operating system. Dr. Dobb's Journal's Excellence in Programming Awards 1997, Jonathan Erickson, May 1, 1997.
1996
Larry Wall, author of the Perl programming language. James Gosling, chief architect of Java. Dr. Dobb's Journal's Excellence in Programming Awards 1996, Jonathan Erickson, March 1, 1996.
1995
Alexander Stepanov, creator of the C++ Standard Template Library. Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux operating system. Dr. Dobb's Journal's Excellence in Programming Awards 1995, Jonathan Erickson, March 1, 1995.
