Lattner created LLVM which finally replaced gcc as the premiere compiler infrastructure across the whole industry. And he created Swift, the future high level language for the whole company. Apple desperately needed something higher level than Objective-C in the age of Javascript coders, and he delivered on that as well.
But I see Apple Fellows as something for people in retirement and he's still mid-career. They can always award it to him later.
The person missing from this list who I'd like to see added is Susan Kare. She defined the look of the early Mac and iPod, designing all the original bitmap fonts and icons. Hugely influential.
Lattner, along with Vikram, created LLVM as a University project, he was only hired by Apple later so at least the initial work wasn’t done while at the company so I’m not sure it would qualify. That combined with the fact that he left before Swift was completed and even then most of the work was being done by others, raises some possible obstacles. It’s a shame, he’s an incredible engineer, but there it is.
Vikram visited the deep learning team I managed in the UIUC Research Park. A very nice guy, and when introductions were made and I heard that he co-created LLVM, to say I was impressed is an understatement.
+1000 karma points for people like Vikram who stay in academia and continue to teach.
> The person missing from this list who I'd like to see added is Susan Kare. She defined the look of the original Mac and iPod, designing its original bitmap fonts and icons. Hugely influential.
Susan did great things. But like Lattner, the whole Apple Fellow thing doesn't apply because she doesn't work for Apple. It isn't some sort of hall of fame, it is a paid position.
Kay was made Apple fellow so he could be lured to work for Apple from where ever he was then working (General Magic or Xerox), can't really remember.-- I think folklore has something on this as well.
Atkinson was given fellowship because Jobs wanted to make him happy. [1]
The way I see it, Apple gives fellowship to people to make them feel themselves important and keep everyone in the room happy and when the press put's their name next to other giants,that must be massive ego satisfaction -- in a positive sense(it was apparently Schiller's idea to use click wheel for original iPod.[2]), for the lack of better choice of words on top of my mouth right now.
But I see Apple Fellows as something for people in retirement and he's still mid-career. They can always award it to him later.
The person missing from this list who I'd like to see added is Susan Kare. She defined the look of the early Mac and iPod, designing all the original bitmap fonts and icons. Hugely influential.