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S.P. Korolev, RSC Energia picture |
Charles SIMONYI
Space flight participant, USA
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH:
September 10, 1948, Budapest Hungary.
In 1966 he moved to Copenhagen, Denmark and in 1966 he left for the United States. In 1982 he acquired the U.S. citizenship.
EDUCATION AND RANKS:
In 1972 he graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and earned his B.S. in engineering and mathematics.
In 1976 he got Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University.
SOCIAL ACTIVITIES:
From 1998 he is a member of the board of guardians of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.
In January 2004 he established the Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences with a capital of 75 M doll.
He is a founder of the title of professor of social science at Oxford University.
TITLES:
In 1997 he was selected as a member of National Academy of Engineering, USA.
He is an Honorary Doctor from the University in Pecsi Tudomanyegyetem, Hungary, 2001 and the corresponding member of the Academy of Sciences of Hungary.
AWARDS:
In 2006 he was decorated with Order of Merit of the Hungarian Republic, Magyar Koztarsasagi Erdemrend.
HOBBY:
Collects modern art, is fond of classical music. He received a license as a pilot of multiengine aircraft, jets and helicopters. The flying time by the end of 2006 was more than 2,000 hours.
WORK EXPERIENCE:
His boyhood interest in space resulted in his selection as Hungary’s. Jr. Astronaut at age 13, for which he won a trip to Russia and met one of the first cosmonauts, Pavel Popovich.
When he went to a secondary school he earned additionally as a night watchman in the computer laboratory. He was keen on computers and programming. When he finished school he independently developed compiling programs.
In 1966-1968 he worked as a computer programmer in company A/A Regnecentralen in Copenhagen, Denmark, then he moved to the United States to study.
From 1972 to 1980 he worked at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), where he created the first WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) text editor, called Bravo, i.e. in the mode of full conformity of the screen display and printing.
From 1981 he worked in the Microsoft Corporation where he took part in development of Microsoft Excel, Multiplan, Word and other software applications.
From 1991 he worked as a senior specialist in architecture of the Advanced Technology branch of Microsoft Research (Redmond, Washington) where he was engaged in the following problem: Intentional Programming or IP.
In the Corporation he held posts of Director of application development, chief architect, leading engineer.
In August 2002 he left the Microsoft Corporation and together with Professor Gregor Kiczales established the Intentional Software Corporation.
In the summer of 2006 he passed medical examination at the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) and on August 8, 2006 at the meeting of the Chief Medical Board he got an allowance for the spaceflight training.
Since September 5, 2006 he started training at Yu.A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center under the VC-12 program as the spaceflight participant.
March 2007
Based on data of Yu.A. Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.
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