• IEEE.org
  • IEEE CS Standards
  • Career Center
  • About Us
  • Subscribe to Newsletter

0

IEEE-CS_LogoTM-orange
  • MEMBERSHIP
  • CONFERENCES
  • PUBLICATIONS
  • EDUCATION & CAREER
  • VOLUNTEER
  • ABOUT
  • Join Us
IEEE-CS_LogoTM-orange

0

IEEE Computer Society Logo
Sign up for our newsletter
IEEE COMPUTER SOCIETY
About UsBoard of GovernorsNewslettersPress RoomIEEE Support CenterContact Us
COMPUTING RESOURCES
Career CenterCourses & CertificationsWebinarsPodcastsTech NewsMembership
BUSINESS SOLUTIONS
Corporate PartnershipsConference Sponsorships & ExhibitsAdvertisingRecruitingDigital Library Institutional Subscriptions
DIGITAL LIBRARY
MagazinesJournalsConference ProceedingsVideo LibraryLibrarian Resources
COMMUNITY RESOURCES
GovernanceConference OrganizersAuthorsChaptersCommunities
POLICIES
PrivacyAccessibility StatementIEEE Nondiscrimination PolicyIEEE Ethics ReportingXML Sitemap

Copyright 2026 IEEE - All rights reserved. A public charity, IEEE is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity.

  • Home
  • /Profiles
  • Home
  • /Profiles

Werner Buchholz

1957–1958 Chair of the IRE Professional Group on Electronic Computers

Featured ImageWerner Buchholz (born 24 October 1922 in Detmold, Germany) is a noted American computer scientist. In July 1956, he coined the term byte, a unit of digital information to describe an ordered group of bits, as the smallest amount of data that a computer could process (bite).

As a member of the team at International Business Machines (IBM) that designed the IBM 701 and the IBM 7030 Stretch, IBM's first transistorized supercomputer, his work was standards-setting in the field of character encoding on computing systems.

Recent Volunteer Positions

1957–1958 Chair of the IRE Professional Group on Electronic Computers
Learn more about volunteering

Awards

1990 Computer Pioneer Award
“For computer architecture.”
Learn more about the Computer Pioneer Award

LATEST NEWS
Build the Future of Technology with a Master of Computer Science from Illinois
Build the Future of Technology with a Master of Computer Science from Illinois
Episode 11 | Building Tech Skills in a Non-Linear Career Path
Episode 11 | Building Tech Skills in a Non-Linear Career Path
Shape the Future of Computing: Celebrate IEEE Day 2026
Shape the Future of Computing: Celebrate IEEE Day 2026
When AI Fails, the Interface Must Still Work: Human-Centered Fault Tolerance for AI Features
When AI Fails, the Interface Must Still Work: Human-Centered Fault Tolerance for AI Features
Terry Benzel Elected as 2028 IEEE Computer Society President
Terry Benzel Elected as 2028 IEEE Computer Society President
Get the latest news and technology trends for computing professionals with ComputingEdge
Sign up for our newsletter
Read Next

Build the Future of Technology with a Master of Computer Science from Illinois

Episode 11 | Building Tech Skills in a Non-Linear Career Path

Shape the Future of Computing: Celebrate IEEE Day 2026

When AI Fails, the Interface Must Still Work: Human-Centered Fault Tolerance for AI Features

Terry Benzel Elected as 2028 IEEE Computer Society President

Why Data Archival Has Become a Strategic Imperative for Enterprise SaaS

Search and Retrieval Now the Key Differentiator for AI Products

IEEE Computer Society Partners with theIPregistry.org to Streamline IP Authentication for Digital Library Subscribers