Landon Curt Noll
Encyclopedia
Landon Curt Noll is an American computer scientist
, co-discoverer of the 25th Mersenne prime
and discoverer of the 26th, which he found while still enrolled in high school and concurrently at Cal State Hayward.
He was also a member of the Amdahl Six team which discovered another record prime in 1989; this prime remains unusual as a record large prime as it was not a Mersenne prime.
Noll was born in Walnut Creek, California
, United States
. At age 18, he became the youngest person to break the record for the largest known prime
. He has held or co-held the record three times.
He is also the co-inventor (with John Horton Conway
) of a system for naming arbitrarily large powers of 10.
He also helped start the International Obfuscated C Code Contest
, and is a co-inventor of the Fowler Noll Vo hash
function.
Noll is an avid astronomer.
He coined the phrase meteor squall to describe a significant but not quite storm level meteor shower.
His most recent work includes measuring the Solar parallax during the 2004 Transit of Venus
as well as the search for Vulcanoid asteroid
s.
Noll was involved in politics as a Sunnyvale, California
city council member and vice-mayor.
Computer scientist
A computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
, co-discoverer of the 25th Mersenne prime
Mersenne prime
In mathematics, a Mersenne number, named after Marin Mersenne , is a positive integer that is one less than a power of two: M_p=2^p-1.\,...
and discoverer of the 26th, which he found while still enrolled in high school and concurrently at Cal State Hayward.
He was also a member of the Amdahl Six team which discovered another record prime in 1989; this prime remains unusual as a record large prime as it was not a Mersenne prime.
Noll was born in Walnut Creek, California
Walnut Creek, California
Walnut Creek is an incorporated city located east of the city of Oakland. It lies in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. While not as large as neighboring Concord, Walnut Creek serves as the business and entertainment hub for the neighboring cities within central Contra Costa...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. At age 18, he became the youngest person to break the record for the largest known prime
Largest known prime
The largest known prime number is the largest integer that is currently known to be a prime number.It was proven by Euclid that there are infinitely many prime numbers; thus, there is always a prime greater than the largest known prime. Many mathematicians and hobbyists search for large prime numbers...
. He has held or co-held the record three times.
He is also the co-inventor (with John Horton Conway
John Horton Conway
John Horton Conway is a prolific mathematician active in the theory of finite groups, knot theory, number theory, combinatorial game theory and coding theory...
) of a system for naming arbitrarily large powers of 10.
He also helped start the International Obfuscated C Code Contest
International Obfuscated C Code Contest
The International Obfuscated C Code Contest is a programming contest for the most creatively obfuscated C code. It was held annually between 1984 and 1996, and thereafter in 1998, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2006....
, and is a co-inventor of the Fowler Noll Vo hash
Fowler Noll Vo hash
Fowler–Noll–Vo is a non-cryptographic hash function created by Glenn Fowler, Landon Curt Noll, and Phong Vo.The basis of the FNV hash algorithm was taken from an idea sent as reviewer comments to the IEEE POSIX P1003.2 committee by Glenn Fowler and Phong Vo back in 1991. In a subsequent ballot...
function.
Noll is an avid astronomer.
He coined the phrase meteor squall to describe a significant but not quite storm level meteor shower.
His most recent work includes measuring the Solar parallax during the 2004 Transit of Venus
Transit of Venus
A transit of Venus across the Sun takes place when the planet Venus passes directly between the Sun and Earth, becoming visible against the solar disk. During a transit, Venus can be seen from Earth as a small black disk moving across the face of the Sun...
as well as the search for Vulcanoid asteroid
Vulcanoid asteroid
The vulcanoids are a hypothetical population of asteroids that may orbit the Sun in a dynamically stable zone inside the orbit of the planet Mercury. They are named after the hypothetical planet Vulcan, whose existence was disproven in 1915...
s.
Noll was involved in politics as a Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale, California
Sunnyvale is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States. It is one of the major cities that make up the Silicon Valley located in the San Francisco Bay Area...
city council member and vice-mayor.