Charles M. Geschke and John E. Warnock receive 2008 Computer Entrepreneur Award

The IEEE Computer Society bestowed its 2008 Computer Entrepreneur Award on Charles M. Geschke and John E. Warnock of Adobe Systems, Inc., for inventing PostScript and PDF and helping to launch the desktop publishing revolution.

Charles M. (Chuck) Geschke and John E. Warnock co-founded Adobe Systems in 1982. A leader in the software industry for more than 35 years, Geschke retired from his position as president of the company in 2000 and continues to share the chairmanship of the board with Warnock. Prior to co-founding Adobe, Geschke formed the Imaging Sciences Laboratory at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in 1980. He was a principal scientist and researcher at PARC's Computer Sciences Laboratory from 1972 to 1980.

Today, Geschke actively participates on several boards of educational institutions, nonprofits, technology companies, and arts organizations. In 1995, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, and in 2008, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Industry and business leaders, including the IEEE, the ACM, Carnegie-Mellon University, the National Computer Graphics Association, and the Rochester Institute of Technology, have honored Geschke's technical and managerial achievements. He received the regional Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1991 and the national Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2003. In 2002, he was elected a Fellow of the Computer History Museum. Geschke received the Medal of Achievement from the American Electronics Association (AeA) in 2006, and in 2007, he received the John W. Gardner Leadership Award. In 2000, Geschke was ranked the seventh most influential graphics person of the last millennium by Graphic Exchange magazine.

After co-founding Adobe in 1982, John E. Warnock served as its first president for two years and then chairman and CEO for his remaining 16 years at the company.

Warnock's career is chronicled in the numerous awards for technical and managerial achievement he has received over the years. A partial list of awards includes Entrepreneur of the Year from Ernst & Young, Merrill Lynch, and Inc. magazine; the University of Utah's Distinguished Alumnus Award; and the ACM's Software Systems Award. Warnock has also received the Edwin H. Land Award from the Optical Society of America, the Bodleian Medal from Oxford University, and the Lovelace Medal from the British Computer Society. He's a distinguished member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Warnock has received honorary degrees
from both the University of Utah and the American Film Institute.

Before co-founding Adobe, Warnock was the Principal Scientist at PARC. Prior to joining Xerox, he held key positions at Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation, Computer Sciences Corporation, IBM, and the University of Utah.

http://awards.computer.org/ana