Charles Simonyi
Encyclopedia
Charles Simonyi is a Hungarian-American computer software
executive who, as head of Microsoft
's application software group, oversaw the creation of Microsoft's flagship Office suite of applications
. He now heads his own company, Intentional Software
, with the aim of developing and marketing his concept of intentional programming
. In April 2007, aboard Soyuz TMA-10
, he became the fifth space tourist
and the second Hungarian in space. In March 2009, aboard Soyuz TMA-14
, he made a second trip to the International Space Station
. His estimated net worth is US$
1 billion.
, Hungary
, the son of Simonyi Károly (the elder), a professor
of electrical engineering
at Technical University of Budapest. While in high school
he worked part-time as a night watchman
at a computer laboratory, overseeing a large Soviet Ural II
mainframe
. He took an interest in computing and learned to program from one of the laboratory's engineers. By the time he left school, he had learned to develop compiler
s and sold one of these to a government department. He presented a demonstration of his compiler to the members of a Danish computer trade
delegation.
's A/S Regnecentralen
in 1966 and moved to the United States
in 1968 to attend the University of California, Berkeley
, where he earned his B.S. in Engineering Mathematics & Statistics
in 1972.
Simonyi then went to Stanford University
for graduate studies and was hired by Xerox PARC
during its most productive period, working alongside luminaries such as Alan Kay
, Butler Lampson
, and Robert Metcalfe
on the development of the Xerox Alto
, one of the first personal computers. He and Lampson developed Bravo
, the first WYSIWYG
document preparation program, which became operational in 1974. He received his Ph.D.
in computer science
from Stanford in 1977 with a dissertation on a software project management technique called "metaprogramming
". This approach sought to defeat Brooks' law
by requiring all programmers to communicate through the manager rather than directly. Simonyi remained at PARC until 1981.
for a job at Microsoft. At the firm, Simonyi oversaw the development of what became its most profitable products, Word
and Excel
, as well as Excel's predecessor Multiplan
. With Multiplan, Simonyi pursued a strategy called the "revenue bomb", whereby the product ran on a virtual machine
that was ported to each platform. The resulting application was highly portable, although Simonyi did not foresee the rapid adoption of MS-DOS
that made such efforts less important. Simonyi introduced to Microsoft the techniques of object-oriented programming
that he had learned at Xerox. He developed the Hungarian notation
convention for naming variables. These standards were originally part of his doctoral thesis. The Hungarian notation has been widely used inside Microsoft.
, a company called Intentional Software. This company markets the intentional programming
concepts Simonyi developed at Microsoft Research. In this approach to software, a programmer first builds a toolbox specific to a given problem domain (such as life insurance). Domain experts, aided by the programmer, then describe the program's intended behavior in a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG
)-like manner. An automated system uses the program description and the toolbox to generate the final program. Successive changes are only done at the WYSIWYG level.
In 2004, Simonyi received the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award for the industry-wide impact of his innovative work in information technology.
In 1995 he established an endowed chair, the Simonyi Professorship of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, first held by the now retired Richard Dawkins
. He also established a Charles Simonyi Professor for Innovation in Teaching endowed chair at Stanford University
. In January 2004, Simonyi created the $50 million Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences, through which Simonyi plans to support Seattle-area arts, science, and educational programs. Initial grant recipients include the Seattle Symphony
($10 million), and the Seattle Public Library
($3 million). In 2005, the Fund donated $25 million to the Institute for Advanced Study
in Princeton, New Jersey
. In January, 2008 the Simonyi Fund and Bill Gates pledged $20 million and $10 million respectively to the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
.
for 15 years. In 2008, however, the two separated. On August 8, 2008, Simonyi became engaged to a Swedish millionaire's daughter, Lisa Persdotter, who is 32 years his junior. On November 22, 2008, the couple married in a private ceremony in Gothenburg
, Sweden
, attended by their closest friends, among them Bill Gates
. The couple are expecting a daughter in early 2011.
Simonyi spends six months per year on his custom-built 233 feet (71 m) long super yacht named Skat
.
Simonyi's residence in Medina, Washington
, "Villa Simonyi", is a modern house designed by architect Wendell Lovett
, where Simonyi displays his collection of paintings by Roy Lichtenstein
and Victor Vasarely
.
and signed agreements with the space tourism company, Space Adventures
, Ltd., for a ten-day mission to the International Space Station
(ISS).
In August 2006, he passed a pre-qualification medical exam by the Russian Federal Space Agency
, called the State Medical Commission (GMK). He started training at Star City
in September 2006.
He launched on April 7, 2007 (GMT), on board Soyuz TMA-10
. He shared a ride with two Russian cosmonauts to the International Space Station
, and returned aboard Soyuz TMA-9
, scheduled to depart from the ISS on April 20, 2007.
Upon arrival to the ISS on April 9, 2007 Simonyi said, "It is amazing how it appears from the blackness of the sky. It was very, very dramatic. It was like a big stage set, a fantastic production of some incredible opera or modern play. That's what I was referring to when I said I was blown away."
Simonyi's expected return on April 20, 2007 was delayed by one day due to 'boggy ground'. He returned to Earth on April 21, 2007 along with an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut.
In October 2008, he booked for a second trip to the ISS through Space Adventures on board Soyuz TMA-14
. On March 26, 2009 he returned to space aboard Soyuz TMA-14. He returned to Earth on board Soyuz TMA-13
. Along with Soyuz Commander Yuri Lonchakov
and Michael Fincke, Simonyi landed in Kazakhstan
on April 8, 2009.
with the call sign
KE7KDP, and planned to contact a number of schools while on his flight on the International Space Station using amateur radio
for the communication with those schools. On April 11, 2007 the American Radio Relay League
reported that Simonyi was already making ham radio contacts from space.
One of the schools Simonyi contacted was Cedar Point Elementary in Bristow
, Virginia
. A telebridge conversation was held on Tuesday, April 17, 2007. Onboard with him were Oleg Kotov and Fyodor Yurchikhin. On March 30, 2009 he held a phone conversation with students at the Girls' Middle School in Mountain View, CA, USA in which he said that one of the most surprising things about traveling to space was that upon returning to earth the air feels very thick, very heavy, like "breathing Pepto-Bismol
." He also stated that talking with the students from the school "made his day."
Simonyi used his Hungarian call sign HA5SIK when he contacted 25 radio amateurs from Hungary in a record attempt on April 12. He contacted former and current students of Tivadar Puskás
Polytechnic, Budapest
on April 13.
Computer software
Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related data that provide the instructions for telling a computer what to do and how to do it....
executive who, as head of Microsoft
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
's application software group, oversaw the creation of Microsoft's flagship Office suite of applications
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
. He now heads his own company, Intentional Software
Intentional Software
Intentional Software is a software company founded by Charles Simonyi. It focuses on developing software tools that pass on control over functionality to the users, following the principles of intentional programming, a recent software movement....
, with the aim of developing and marketing his concept of intentional programming
Intentional Programming
In computer programming, intentional programming is a collection of concepts which enable software source code to reflect the precise information, called intention, which programmers had in mind when conceiving their work...
. In April 2007, aboard Soyuz TMA-10
Soyuz TMA-10
Soyuz TMA-10 was a human spaceflight mission using a Soyuz-TMA spacecraft to transport personnel to and from the International Space Station . The mission began at 17:31:09 UTC on April 7, 2007 when the spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle...
, he became the fifth space tourist
Space tourism
Space Tourism is space travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. A number of startup companies have sprung up in recent years, hoping to create a space tourism industry...
and the second Hungarian in space. In March 2009, aboard Soyuz TMA-14
Soyuz TMA-14
The Soyuz TMA-14 was a Soyuz flight to the International Space Station, which launched on 26 March 2009. It transported two members of the Expedition 19 crew as well as spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi on his second self-funded flight to the space station...
, he made a second trip to the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
. His estimated net worth is US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
1 billion.
Early life in Hungary
Simonyi was born in BudapestBudapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, the son of Simonyi Károly (the elder), a professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
of electrical engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
at Technical University of Budapest. While in high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
he worked part-time as a night watchman
Security guard
A security guard is a person who is paid to protect property, assets, or people. Security guards are usually privately and formally employed personnel...
at a computer laboratory, overseeing a large Soviet Ural II
Ural (computer)
Ural is a computer series built in Soviet Union.- History :The Ural was developed at the Electronic Computer Producing Manufacturer of Penza in the Soviet Union and was produced between 1959 and 1964. In total 139 were made...
mainframe
Mainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
. He took an interest in computing and learned to program from one of the laboratory's engineers. By the time he left school, he had learned to develop compiler
Compiler
A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...
s and sold one of these to a government department. He presented a demonstration of his compiler to the members of a Danish computer trade
International trade
International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories. In most countries, such trade represents a significant share of gross domestic product...
delegation.
Denmark and USA
He was hired by DenmarkDenmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
's A/S Regnecentralen
Regnecentralen
Regnecentralen, or RC for short, was the first Danish computer company, founded on October 12, 1955. Through the 1950s and 60s they designed a series of computers, originally for their own use, and later to be sold commercially. Descendants of these systems sold well into the 1980s...
in 1966 and moved to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1968 to attend the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
, where he earned his B.S. in Engineering Mathematics & Statistics
Statistics
Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....
in 1972.
Simonyi then went to Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
for graduate studies and was hired by Xerox PARC
Xerox PARC
PARC , formerly Xerox PARC, is a research and co-development company in Palo Alto, California, with a distinguished reputation for its contributions to information technology and hardware systems....
during its most productive period, working alongside luminaries such as Alan Kay
Alan Kay
Alan Curtis Kay is an American computer scientist, known for his early pioneering work on object-oriented programming and windowing graphical user interface design, and for coining the phrase, "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."He is the president of the Viewpoints Research...
, Butler Lampson
Butler Lampson
Butler W. Lampson is a renowned computer scientist.After graduating from the Lawrenceville School , Lampson received his Bachelor's degree in Physics from Harvard University in 1964, and his Ph.D...
, and Robert Metcalfe
Robert Metcalfe
Robert Melancton Metcalfe is an electrical engineer from the United States who co-invented Ethernet, founded 3Com and formulated Metcalfe's Law., he is a general partner of Polaris Venture Partners...
on the development of the Xerox Alto
Xerox Alto
The Xerox Alto was one of the first computers designed for individual use , making it arguably what is now called a personal computer. It was developed at Xerox PARC in 1973...
, one of the first personal computers. He and Lampson developed Bravo
Bravo (software)
Bravo was the first WYSIWYG document preparation program. It provided multi-font capability using the bitmap displays on the Xerox Alto personal computer...
, the first WYSIWYG
WYSIWYG
WYSIWYG is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get. The term is used in computing to describe a system in which content displayed onscreen during editing appears in a form closely corresponding to its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product...
document preparation program, which became operational in 1974. He received his Ph.D.
Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
in computer science
Computer science
Computer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
from Stanford in 1977 with a dissertation on a software project management technique called "metaprogramming
Metaprogramming (management)
Metaprogramming is the name of a management technique invented by Charles Simonyi for organizing the work of a team of programmers. In a 2002 news item , The Age noted:...
". This approach sought to defeat Brooks' law
Brooks' law
Brooks's law is a principle in software development which says that "adding manpower to a late software project makes it later". It was coined by Fred Brooks in his 1975 book The Mythical Man-Month. The corollary of Brooks's Law is that there is an incremental person who, when added to a project,...
by requiring all programmers to communicate through the manager rather than directly. Simonyi remained at PARC until 1981.
Microsoft
In 1981, at Metcalfe's suggestion, he applied directly to Bill GatesBill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
for a job at Microsoft. At the firm, Simonyi oversaw the development of what became its most profitable products, Word
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
and Excel
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a proprietary commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications...
, as well as Excel's predecessor Multiplan
MultiPlan
Multiplan was an early spreadsheet program developed by Microsoft. Known initially by the code name "EP" , it was introduced in 1982 as a competitor for VisiCalc....
. With Multiplan, Simonyi pursued a strategy called the "revenue bomb", whereby the product ran on a virtual machine
Virtual machine
A virtual machine is a "completely isolated guest operating system installation within a normal host operating system". Modern virtual machines are implemented with either software emulation or hardware virtualization or both together.-VM Definitions:A virtual machine is a software...
that was ported to each platform. The resulting application was highly portable, although Simonyi did not foresee the rapid adoption of MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
that made such efforts less important. Simonyi introduced to Microsoft the techniques of object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm using "objects" – data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs. Programming techniques may include features such as data abstraction,...
that he had learned at Xerox. He developed the Hungarian notation
Hungarian notation
Hungarian notation is an identifier naming convention in computer programming, in which the name of a variable or function indicates its type or intended use...
convention for naming variables. These standards were originally part of his doctoral thesis. The Hungarian notation has been widely used inside Microsoft.
Intentional Software
Simonyi remained at Microsoft during its rapid rise in the software industry, becoming one of its highest-ranking developers. He left abruptly in 2002 to co-found, with business partner Gregor KiczalesGregor Kiczales
Gregor Kiczales is a professor of computer science at the University of British Columbia in Canada. His best known work is on Aspect-oriented programming and the AspectJ extension for Java at Xerox PARC. He has also contributed to the design of the Common Lisp Object System, and is the author of...
, a company called Intentional Software. This company markets the intentional programming
Intentional Programming
In computer programming, intentional programming is a collection of concepts which enable software source code to reflect the precise information, called intention, which programmers had in mind when conceiving their work...
concepts Simonyi developed at Microsoft Research. In this approach to software, a programmer first builds a toolbox specific to a given problem domain (such as life insurance). Domain experts, aided by the programmer, then describe the program's intended behavior in a What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG
WYSIWYG
WYSIWYG is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get. The term is used in computing to describe a system in which content displayed onscreen during editing appears in a form closely corresponding to its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product...
)-like manner. An automated system uses the program description and the toolbox to generate the final program. Successive changes are only done at the WYSIWYG level.
In 2004, Simonyi received the Wharton Infosys Business Transformation Award for the industry-wide impact of his innovative work in information technology.
Patents
Simonyi currently holds 11 patentsPhilanthropy
Simonyi has been an active philanthropist. His Fund has established three professorships:- In 1995, the Simonyi Professorship of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, first held by Richard DawkinsRichard DawkinsClinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
1995-2008, 2008–present Marcus du SautoyMarcus du SautoyMarcus Peter Francis du Sautoy OBE is the Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science and a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. Formerly a Fellow of All Souls College, and Wadham College, he is now a Fellow of New College... - A Simonyi Professorship for Innovation in Teaching endowed chair at Stanford UniversityStanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
, held by Eric S. Roberts 1997-2002 - In 2005, as part of $25 million donation, a Simonyi Professorship of Mathematical Physics at the Institute for Advanced StudyInstitute for Advanced StudyThe Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, is an independent postgraduate center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It was founded in 1930 by Abraham Flexner...
, held by Edward WittenEdward WittenEdward Witten is an American theoretical physicist with a focus on mathematical physics who is currently a professor of Mathematical Physics at the Institute for Advanced Study....
2005–present
In 1995 he established an endowed chair, the Simonyi Professorship of the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University, first held by the now retired Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins, FRS, FRSL , known as Richard Dawkins, is a British ethologist, evolutionary biologist and author...
. He also established a Charles Simonyi Professor for Innovation in Teaching endowed chair at Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. In January 2004, Simonyi created the $50 million Charles Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences, through which Simonyi plans to support Seattle-area arts, science, and educational programs. Initial grant recipients include the Seattle Symphony
Seattle Symphony
The Seattle Symphony is an American orchestra based in Seattle, Washington. Since 1998, the orchestra is resident at Benaroya Hall. The orchestra's season runs from September through July, and serves as the pit orchestra for most productions of the Seattle Opera in addition to its own concerts...
($10 million), and the Seattle Public Library
Seattle Public Library
The Seattle Public Library is the public library system serving Seattle, Washington, USA. It was officially established by the city in 1890, though there had been efforts to start a Seattle library as early as 1868. There are 26 branches in the system, most of them named after the neighborhoods in...
($3 million). In 2005, the Fund donated $25 million to the Institute for Advanced Study
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study, located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States, is an independent postgraduate center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It was founded in 1930 by Abraham Flexner...
in Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a community located in Mercer County, New Jersey, United States. It is best known as the location of Princeton University, which has been sited in the community since 1756...
. In January, 2008 the Simonyi Fund and Bill Gates pledged $20 million and $10 million respectively to the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope is a planned wide-field "survey" reflecting telescope that will photograph the available sky every three nights. The LSST is currently in its design and development phase and will achieve engineering first light four years after construction starts...
.
Personal life
As of February 2008, Simonyi had been dating Martha StewartMartha Stewart
Martha Stewart is an American business magnate, author, magazine publisher, and television personality. As founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, she has gained success through a variety of business ventures, encompassing publishing, broadcasting, and merchandising...
for 15 years. In 2008, however, the two separated. On August 8, 2008, Simonyi became engaged to a Swedish millionaire's daughter, Lisa Persdotter, who is 32 years his junior. On November 22, 2008, the couple married in a private ceremony in Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
, attended by their closest friends, among them Bill Gates
Bill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
. The couple are expecting a daughter in early 2011.
Simonyi spends six months per year on his custom-built 233 feet (71 m) long super yacht named Skat
Skat (yacht)
The Skat is a luxury yacht built by Lürssen of Bremen, Germany as project 9906, a number prominently displayed on the hull in a font matching that of military vessels. The project started in November 1999 and the yacht launched in 2001. The owner is Charles Simonyi, a former Software Engineer from...
.
Simonyi's residence in Medina, Washington
Medina, Washington
Medina is a city located in the Eastside, a region of King County, Washington, United States. Surrounded on the north, west, and south by Lake Washington, opposite Seattle, Medina is bordered by Clyde Hill and Hunts Point, as well as the satellite city of Bellevue. The city's population was 2,969...
, "Villa Simonyi", is a modern house designed by architect Wendell Lovett
Wendell Lovett
Wendell Harper Lovett is a significant Pacific Northwest architect and teacher.Born and raised in Seattle, Washington, Lovett entered the University of Washington program in architecture in 1940, but his college years were interrupted by wartime service. He graduated from the University of...
, where Simonyi displays his collection of paintings by Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein
Roy Lichtenstein was a prominent American pop artist. During the 1960s his paintings were exhibited at the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York City and along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, James Rosenquist and others he became a leading figure in the new art movement...
and Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely
Victor Vasarely was a Hungarian French artist whose work is generally seen aligned with Op-art.His work entitled Zebra, created by Vasarely in the 1930s, is considered by some to be one of the earliest examples of Op-art...
.
Spaceflights
In early 2006, Simonyi expressed interest in becoming a space touristSpace tourism
Space Tourism is space travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. A number of startup companies have sprung up in recent years, hoping to create a space tourism industry...
and signed agreements with the space tourism company, Space Adventures
Space Adventures
Space Adventures, Ltd. is a Virginia, USA-based space tourism company founded in 1998 by Eric C. Anderson. , offerings include zero-gravity atmospheric flights, orbital spaceflights , and other spaceflight-related experiences including cosmonaut training, spacewalk training, and launch tours...
, Ltd., for a ten-day mission to the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
(ISS).
In August 2006, he passed a pre-qualification medical exam by the Russian Federal Space Agency
Russian Federal Space Agency
The Russian Federal Space Agency , commonly called Roscosmos and abbreviated as FKA and RKA , is the government agency responsible for the Russian space science program and general aerospace research. It was previously the Russian Aviation and Space Agency .Headquarters of Roscosmos are located...
, called the State Medical Commission (GMK). He started training at Star City
Star City, Russia
Star City is a common name of an area in Moscow Oblast, Russia, which has since the 1960s been home to the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center...
in September 2006.
He launched on April 7, 2007 (GMT), on board Soyuz TMA-10
Soyuz TMA-10
Soyuz TMA-10 was a human spaceflight mission using a Soyuz-TMA spacecraft to transport personnel to and from the International Space Station . The mission began at 17:31:09 UTC on April 7, 2007 when the spacecraft was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome by a Soyuz FG launch vehicle...
. He shared a ride with two Russian cosmonauts to the International Space Station
International Space Station
The International Space Station is a habitable, artificial satellite in low Earth orbit. The ISS follows the Salyut, Almaz, Cosmos, Skylab, and Mir space stations, as the 11th space station launched, not including the Genesis I and II prototypes...
, and returned aboard Soyuz TMA-9
Soyuz TMA-9
-Crew notes:Daisuke Enomoto Was originally scheduled to be the spaceflight participant, but on on 21 August 2006, he was determined to be unfit for the flight due to medical reasons, and replaced by Anousheh Ansari, his back-up crew member.-Docking with ISS:...
, scheduled to depart from the ISS on April 20, 2007.
Upon arrival to the ISS on April 9, 2007 Simonyi said, "It is amazing how it appears from the blackness of the sky. It was very, very dramatic. It was like a big stage set, a fantastic production of some incredible opera or modern play. That's what I was referring to when I said I was blown away."
Simonyi's expected return on April 20, 2007 was delayed by one day due to 'boggy ground'. He returned to Earth on April 21, 2007 along with an American astronaut and a Russian cosmonaut.
In October 2008, he booked for a second trip to the ISS through Space Adventures on board Soyuz TMA-14
Soyuz TMA-14
The Soyuz TMA-14 was a Soyuz flight to the International Space Station, which launched on 26 March 2009. It transported two members of the Expedition 19 crew as well as spaceflight participant Charles Simonyi on his second self-funded flight to the space station...
. On March 26, 2009 he returned to space aboard Soyuz TMA-14. He returned to Earth on board Soyuz TMA-13
Soyuz TMA-13
Soyuz TMA-13 was a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station . The spacecraft was launched by a Soyuz-FG rocket at 07:01 GMT on 12 October 2008. It undocked at 02:55 GMT on 8 April 2009, performed a deorbit burn at 06:24, and landed at 07:16...
. Along with Soyuz Commander Yuri Lonchakov
Yuri Lonchakov
Yury Valentinovich Lonchakov is a Russian cosmonaut and a veteran of three space missions. He has spent 200 days in space and has conducted two career spacewalks.- Personal :...
and Michael Fincke, Simonyi landed in Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
on April 8, 2009.
Radio communication while aboard ISS
Charles Simonyi is a licensed amateur radio operatorAmateur radio operator
An amateur radio operator is an individual who typically uses equipment at an amateur radio station to engage in two-way personal communications with other similar individuals on radio frequencies assigned to the amateur radio service. Amateur radio operators have been granted an amateur radio...
with the call sign
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitting station. In North America they are used as names for broadcasting stations...
KE7KDP, and planned to contact a number of schools while on his flight on the International Space Station using amateur radio
Amateur radio
Amateur radio is the use of designated radio frequency spectrum for purposes of private recreation, non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, and emergency communication...
for the communication with those schools. On April 11, 2007 the American Radio Relay League
American Radio Relay League
The American Radio Relay League is the largest membership association of amateur radio enthusiasts in the USA. ARRL is a non-profit organization, and was founded in May 1914 by Hiram Percy Maxim of Hartford, Connecticut...
reported that Simonyi was already making ham radio contacts from space.
One of the schools Simonyi contacted was Cedar Point Elementary in Bristow
Bristow, Virginia
Bristow is an unincorporated town in Prince William County, Virginia, United States. The population was 8,910 in the 2000 census, and the 2009 estimate was 15,137....
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. A telebridge conversation was held on Tuesday, April 17, 2007. Onboard with him were Oleg Kotov and Fyodor Yurchikhin. On March 30, 2009 he held a phone conversation with students at the Girls' Middle School in Mountain View, CA, USA in which he said that one of the most surprising things about traveling to space was that upon returning to earth the air feels very thick, very heavy, like "breathing Pepto-Bismol
Pepto-Bismol
Pepto-Bismol is an over-the-counter drug currently produced by the Procter and Gamble company in the United States of America and in Canada to treat minor digestive system upset. Its active ingredient is bismuth subsalicylate...
." He also stated that talking with the students from the school "made his day."
Simonyi used his Hungarian call sign HA5SIK when he contacted 25 radio amateurs from Hungary in a record attempt on April 12. He contacted former and current students of Tivadar Puskás
Tivadar Puskás
Tivadar Puskás was a Hungarian inventor, telephone pioneer, and inventor of the telephone exchange He was also the founder of Telefon Hírmondó.-Biography:...
Polytechnic, Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
on April 13.