George Boole

Born in Lincoln, England, on November 2, 1815, George Boole grew up in modest circumstances and was largely self-educated. He developed a deep interest in mathematics and languages, and his talent eventually brought him recognition well beyond the classroom.

Boole is best known for creating an algebra of logic now called Boolean algebra. By showing that logical statements could be represented and manipulated mathematically, he opened a path that would later become essential to computer science, circuit design, and modern information technology.

In 1849 he became the first professor of mathematics at Queen's College Cork in Ireland. He died on December 8, 1864, but his work has had an extraordinary afterlife: what began as a bold attempt to understand reasoning became one of the basic languages of the digital age.