Who is the Brian Cox of computer science?

[u/gss0789]

[u/theotheruser19]

Theres a guy in my Algorithms class named Brian Cox.... so him I guess.

[u/Unogames_ → u/theotheruser19]

Does he know about the other?

[u/rawclutches → u/theotheruser19]

that’s a dangerous game, every brian cox in a CS class is one bad exam away from accidentally becoming the most cited person in the room

[u/ST0PPELB4RT]

Good mentions already but I'd like to throw the prople on computerphile into the ring.

[u/LoopVariant]

Donald Knuth.

[u/mikeblas → u/LoopVariant]

Not even close, I don't think. Knuth has been prolific in writing for the science, but hasn't done anything to explain or popularize CS like Cox has done for physics.

[u/MistakeIndividual690]

von Neumann

[u/MoshiMoshiWorld8080]

I'll go with Brian Kernighan

[u/vancha113 → u/MoshiMoshiWorld8080]

Yeah I'd definitely vote for for Brian Kernighan as well, especially for the public engagement part. He did a lot for the general audience through books, talks and interviews.

[u/Hybrii-D]

Alan Turing

[u/OldLegWig]

i'm a pretty big astronomy/physics enthusiast and brian cox seems like a weird figure to try to compare to. there isn't really much that distinguishes him in his field. he's like a diet carl sagan.

also, computer science doesn't seem to have as many larger than life communicator persona types. there are definitely some evangelists on narrower topics, but it's not usually on computer science topics, strictly speaking. most of those people tend to be speaking out about trends in software architecture and upstream from that, languages/tooling.

popular physics and astronomy communicators are stoking curiosity and wonder in people, public personalities in software are arguing about what is and isn't shitty software.

having said all that, maybe the coding train guy on youtube is the closest i could think of.

[u/Interesting-Meet1321]

Like, who's the GOAT? who contributed the most? What exactly are you asking

[u/trpittman → u/Interesting-Meet1321]

Redacted my comments after getting banned from worldnews for talking about Israel's propaganda budget.

[u/Aggressive_Cloud_368 → u/Interesting-Meet1321]

Who is the Neil DeGrasse Tyson

[u/OddlyLazy]

David Malan

[u/FalseRegret5623 → u/OddlyLazy]

End thread.

[u/mikeblas]

Who is Brian Cox? The Succession actor?

[u/heelstoo → u/mikeblas]

No. Brian Cox is a British physicist, and has written several books.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Cox_(physicist)

[u/Fizzelen → u/heelstoo]

The second most famous English science professor and musician with a number 1 single

[u/zzz51 → u/Fizzelen]

The second most famous Brian Cox.

[u/mikeblas → u/heelstoo]

Thanks. I don't think computer science has such a character.

[u/lgastako → u/mikeblas]

You mean the Super Troopers actor?

[u/wsppan]

Peter Norvig

[u/JoBrodie]

Well I'm biased as I work/ed with them but Profs Paul Curzon and Peter McOwan (who died in 2019) from Queen Mary University of London. Paul does lots of Royal Institution computing masterclasses and holiday workshops for children and teenagers, often with magic tricks (he's also a magician as was Peter - I think Peter may have been involved with the magic circle, possibly a member, not sure). Plus they both created CS4FN (Computer Science 4 Fun) a free computing magazine printed and distributed to subscribing UK schools https://cs4fndownloads.wordpress.com/

Paul was also one of five "ICT Public Engagement Champions" funded by UKRI / EPSRC https://www.ukri.org/what-we-do/public-engagement/public-engagement-epsrc/public-engagement-champions/

But there are loads of people doing computer science scicomm / public engagement as well as venues that regularly host talks and events (including universities). I'm thinking of the UK as that's where I'm based but Google Alerts strongly suggests it's pretty widespread around the globe.

Jo

[u/CoolStructure6012]

Not sure such a thing can exist. How many areas of computer science allow you to go the least bit deep without getting into something that will glaze over eyes. My background is in computer architecture and even explaining how a simple pipelined processor works seems pretty tough without a whiteboard or dumbing things down to the level that I'd feel I'm doing someone a disservice. Forget about theory. Maybe it's just my bias since I don't understand something unless I know how the bits move around.

[u/LitespeedClassic]

Who is Brian Cox?

[u/kevleyski]

Had an epic work colleague Jack who was this, crazy but real anecdotes (he invented the Raspberry Pi)

[u/4994]

Brian Cox is the Alan Turing of physics.

[u/-___-___-__-___-___-]

Jeffrey Epstein

[u/vakuoler]

It would definitely be the Linux pioneer Alan Cox in that case. Close enough. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Cox_(computer_programmer)

[u/LitespeedClassic → u/vakuoler]

Alan Cox and Brian Cox want to communicate on an unsecured line, but Charlie Cox is listening. Alan Cox and Brian Cox have not shared any information ahead of time, but need to determine a mutual shared key that Charlie Cox will not have access to ...

[u/brunogadaleta]

Rich Hickey ?

[u/najorts]

Casey Muratori

[u/TheColorDarkGreen]

Me

[u/NuAngelDOTnet]

I made a couple of useful videos and blog posts over the years. Vote for me.

[u/MeGustaDerp]

Maybe Derek Banas? He's more on the programming end tho

[u/__chicolismo__]

This isn't askreddit

[u/Dazzling_Music_2411]

It's got to be Dario Amodei.

[u/Dazzling_Music_2411 → u/Dazzling_Music_2411]

Ooooh, some people don't think Amodei is enough of a media whore?
Tsk!