George Boole (2 November 1815 8 December 1864) was an English mathematician, philosopher and logician.

. He worked in the fields of differential equations and algebraic logic, and is now best known as the author of The Laws of Thought. As the inventor of the prototype of what is now called Boolean logic, which became the basis of the modern digital computer, Boole is regarded in hindsight as a founder of the field of computer science. George Boole (1815 - 1864) was the inventor of Boolean Algebra, in 1848. The algebra is useful in designing and minimising logic circuitry in computers, whether implemented by thermionic valves, transistors or microchips.

Maurice Karnaugh, born 1924 in New York City is an American physicist, famous for the Karnaugh map used in association with Boolean Algebra for the simplification of logic circuitry. He studied mathematics and physics at City College of New York (1944 - 1948) and transferred to Yale University to complete his BSc (1949), MSc (1950) and PhD. in physics (1952). Karnaugh worked at Bell Labs (1952 - 1966), developing the Karnaugh map (1954) as well as patents for encoding and magnetic logic circuits. He later worked at IBM's Federal Systems Division in Gaithersburg (1966 - 1970) and at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center (1970 1989), studying multistage interconnection networks. Karnaugh was elected an IEEE Fellow (1976), and was associated with the Polytechnic University of New York at the Westchester campus (1980 - 1999).