Eckert, W. J. (Wallace John), 1902-1971

Wallace John Eckert received his Ph.D. in astronomy from Yale in 1931 and became part of the faculty at Columbia that same year. He established the Thomas J. Watson Astronomical Computing Laboratory in the early 1930s and strongly urged IBM to develop a scientific calculator. His book, Punched Card Methods in Scientific Computation (1940), influenced the development of the electronic computer. In 1940, Eckert left Columbia to become the director of the Nautical Almanac Office of the U.S. Naval Observatory. After World War II, Eckert returned to Columbia. During this period he also worked with IBM in the development of the Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator (SSEC). He retired from Columbia in 1967 and became an IBM Fellow.

Eckert formed Columbia University's Thomas J. Watson Astronomical Computing Bureau in the 1930s and was director of the U.S. Naval Observatory. He worked on adapting IBM business tabulators and accounting devices for use in astronomy. After World War II he formed the Watson Scientific Computing Laboratory at Columbia, out of which came work relating to the scientific uses of punched card machines. Eckert and others helped develop the Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator and the Naval Ordnance Research Calculator.