Peter G. Neumann

Peter Gabriel Neumann (September 21, 1932 – May 17, 2026) was an American computer science researcher who studied how computer systems fail and advocated for the principles that make them fail less often.. Neumann worked on the Multics operating system in the 1960s, and edited the RISKS Digest columns for ACM Software Engineering Notes and Communications of the ACM. He founded ACM SIGSOFT and was a Fellow of the ACM, IEEE, and AAAS.

Infobox

Born

(1932-09-21)September 21, 1932 New York City, U .

Died

May 17, 2026(2026-05-17) (aged 93) Santa Clara, California, U .

Alma mater

Harvard University

Known for

RISKS Digest Multics operating system

Spouse

Elizabeth Neumann

Fields

Computer science

Institutions

SRI International

Thesis

Efficient error-limiting variable-length codes (1962)

Doctoral advisor

Anthony Oettinger

References

Peter G. Neumann at the Mathematics Genealogy Project
https://mathgenealogy.org/id.php?id=161669
The Vineyard Gazette - Martha's Vineyard News
https://vineyardgazette.com/obituaries/2020/12/01/elizabeth-neumann
"In Memoriam: Peter G. Neumann (1932-2026)"
https://cacm.acm.org/news/in-memoriam-peter-g-neumann-1932-2026/
"A General-Purpose File System For Secondary Storage"
http://www.multicians.org/fjcc4.html
"Risks Forum - ACM Queue"
https://web.archive.org/web/20180101011417/http://queue.acm.org/risksforum.cfm
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
https://web.archive.org/web/20120926121854/http://www.ieee.org/membership_services/membership/fellows/alphabetical/nfellows.html
"AAAS - the World's Largest General Scientific Society"
https://web.archive.org/web/20140115191304/http://php.aaas.org/about/aaas_fellows/list.php
The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/17/obituaries/peter-g-neumann-dead.html
The Star (Malaysia)
https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2026/05/19/peter-g-neumann-who-warned-of-computer-security-risks-dies-at-93
The New York Times
https://web.archive.org/web/20181023063558/http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/30/science/rethinking-the-computer-at-80.html
Proceedings of the National Computer Conference
http://www.csl.sri.com/users/neumann/psos.pdf
"Requirements and Model for IDES - A Real-Time Intrusion Detection System"
https://faculty.nps.edu/dedennin/publications/IDESReportSRI1985.pdf
IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering
https://www.cs.colostate.edu/~cs656/reading/ieee-se-13-2.pdf
www
http://www.csl.sri.com/users/neumann/nrc-votpgn07.html
"ACM: Fellows Award / Peter G Neumann"
https://web.archive.org/web/20061004083231/http://fellows.acm.org/fellow_citation.cfm?id=1006303&srt=alpha&alpha=N
SRI International
http://www.csl.sri.com/users/neumann/ccpp.html