COMPUTER SCIENTIST

Steve Wilhite

1948 - 2022

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Stephen Earl Wilhite (March 3, 1948 – March 14, 2022) was an American computer scientist who worked at CompuServe and was the engineering lead on the team that created the GIF image file format in 1987. GIF went on to become the de facto standard for 8-bit color images on the Internet until PNG (1996) became a widely supported alternative. The format later became the subject of a patent assertion by Unisys on its use of the LZW compression algorithm. Known as the inventor or creator of the GIF, Wilhite received a Webby Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013. Read more on Wikipedia

His biography is available in 20 different languages on Wikipedia. Steve Wilhite is the 222nd most popular computer scientist (down from 220th in 2024), the 15,241st most popular biography from United States (up from 15,307th in 2019) and the 118th most popular American Computer Scientist.

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Among COMPUTER SCIENTISTS

Among computer scientists, Steve Wilhite ranks 222 out of 245. Before him are Phil Katz, Bram Cohen, Terry A. Davis, Eric Allman, Nancy Lynch, and Douglas Crockford. After him are Werner Koch, Gottfrid Svartholm, Vincent Rijmen, John Ousterhout, Tron, and David Jones.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1948, Steve Wilhite ranks 773. Before him are Brendan Foster, Prakash Karat, Nancy Lynch, Kapil Sibal, William M. Daley, and Ian Hallam. After him are Teresa Graves, Mildrette Netter, Dave Heineman, Farooq Sheikh, Tom Coburn, and Carol Bartz. Among people deceased in 2022, Steve Wilhite ranks 672. Before him are Andrejs Rubins, Sergei Yashin, Kim Mi-soo, Lucious Jackson, Pallonji Mistry, and Yuri Bashkatov. After him are Kim Jung Gi, Brent Renaud, Douglas McGrath, Kathleen Nord, Szilveszter Csollány, and Nergüin Enkhbat.

Others Born in 1948

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Others Deceased in 2022

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Steve Wilhite ranks 15,247 out of 20,380. Before him are Lindsay Price (1976), Jerome Richardson (1920), Ashlee Simpson (1984), Bianca Lawson (1979), Philip, Hereditary Prince of Yugoslavia (1982), and Elizabeth Kostova (1964). After him are Johnny Whitworth (1975), Colleen Ballinger (1986), Bruce Altman (1955), Ann Veneman (1949), Joel Murray (1963), and Jessica Monroe (1966).

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Among COMPUTER SCIENTISTS In United States

Among computer scientists born in United States, Steve Wilhite ranks 118. Before him are Phil Katz (1962), Bram Cohen (1975), Terry A. Davis (1969), Eric Allman (1955), Nancy Lynch (1948), and Douglas Crockford (1955). After him are John Ousterhout (1954), Shawn Fanning (1980), Greg Kroah-Hartman (null), Theodore Ts'o (1968), Jeff Dean (1968), and Rosalind Picard (1962).

American born Computer Scientists

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