# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/john-backus
# Generated: 2026-08-12T23:08:50.592Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/john-backus"
name: "John Backus"
slug: "john-backus"
description: "John Warner Backus  was an American computer scientist. He led the team that invented and implemented FORTRAN, the first widely used high-level programming language, and was the inventor of the Backus–Naur form (BNF), a widely used notation to define syntaxes of formal languages. He also contributed to the design of ALGOL, and later researched the function-level programming paradigm, presenting his findings in his influential 1977 Turing Award lecture \"Can Programming Be Liberated from the von Neumann Style?\""
tagline: "American computer scientist (1924–2007)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/John_Backus_2.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Academics"
  slug: "academics"
profileType:
  name: "Academic"
  slug: "academic"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q39631"
birthDate: "1924-12-03"
deathDate: "2007-03-17"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           52.73
  momentum:             0
  historical:           21.730068
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
sources:
  - url: "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Backus"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%AC%D9%88%D9%86_%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%83%D9%88%D8%B3"
    title: "جون باكوس"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%AC%D9%88%D9%86_%D8%A8%D8%A7%D9%83%D9%88%D8%B3"
    title: "جون باكوس"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://azb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%86_%D8%A8%D8%A7%DA%A9%D9%88%D8%B3"
    title: "جان باکوس"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/Con_Bekus"
    title: "Con Bekus"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%B6%D0%BE%D0%BD_%D0%91%D1%8D%D0%BA%D1%83%D1%81"
    title: "Джон Бэкус"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%94%D0%B6%D0%BE%D0%BD_%D0%91%D0%B5%D0%BA%D1%8A%D1%81"
    title: "Джон Бекъс"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%A8_%E0%A6%AC%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B8"
    title: "জন বাকাস"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bs.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Backus"
    title: "John Backus"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Backus"
    title: "John W. Backus"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Backus"
    title: "John Backus"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Backus"
    title: "John Backus"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W._Backus"
    title: "John W. Backus"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Backus"
    title: "John Backus"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Backus"
    title: "John Backus"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Backus"
    title: "John Backus"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Backus"
    title: "John Backus"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Backus"
    title: "John Backus"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%86_%D8%A8%D8%A7%DA%A9%D9%88%D8%B3"
    title: "جان باکوس"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Backus"
    title: "John Backus"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Backus"
    title: "John Backus"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Backus"
    title: "John Backus"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Backus"
    title: "John Backus"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%9C%E0%A5%89%E0%A4%A8_%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%85%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%B8"
    title: "जॉन बॅकस"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Backus"
    title: "John Backus"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ht.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Backus"
    title: "John Backus"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q92746"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-dump