Peter J. Weinberger

{{Redirect|Peter Weinberger|the 1956 kidnapping and murder victim|Murder of Peter Weinberger}}

{{Infobox scientist

| name = Peter Jay Weinberger

| image = PeterWeinberger2009.jpg

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| caption = Weinberger in 2009

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|mf=yes|1942|8|6}}

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| field = Number theory, computer science

| work_institution = University of Michigan
Bell Labs
Renaissance Technologies
Google Inc.

| alma_mater = University of California, Berkeley (Ph.D. 1969)

| doctoral_advisor = Derrick Henry Lehmer

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| known_for = AWK

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Peter Jay Weinberger (born August 6, 1942) is a computer scientist best known for his early work at Bell Labs. He now works at Google.{{Cite web |title=Masterminds of Programming [Book] |url=https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/masterminds-of-programming/9780596801670/ |access-date=2022-07-04 |website=www.oreilly.com |language=en}}

Weinberger was an undergraduate at Swarthmore College, graduating in 1964. He received his PhD in mathematics (number theory) in 1969 from the University of California, Berkeley under Derrick Henry Lehmer for a thesis entitled "Proof of a Conjecture of Gauss on Class Number Two". After holding a position in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he continued his work in analytic number theory, he moved to AT&T Bell Labs.

At Bell Labs, Weinberger contributed to the design of the AWK programming language (he is the "W" in AWK), and the Fortran compiler f77.{{cite tech report |first1=M. D. |last1=McIlroy |authorlink1=Doug McIlroy |year=1987 |url=http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~doug/reader.pdf |title=A Research Unix reader: annotated excerpts from the Programmer's Manual, 1971–1986 |series=CSTR |number=139 |institution=Bell Labs}} A detailed explanation of his contributions to AWK and other Unix tools is found in an [http://www.princeton.edu/~hos/mike/transcripts/weinberger.htm interview transcript] at Princeton University.

Another interview sheds some light on his work at Google.{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1109/MSP.2005.123| title = From AWK to Google: Peter Weinberger Talks Search| journal = IEEE Security and Privacy Magazine| volume = 3| issue = 5| pages = 11–13| year = 2005| last1 = McLaughlin | first1 = Laurianne}}

When Peter Weinberger was promoted to head of Computer Science Research at Bell Labs, his picture was merged with the AT&T "death star" logo of the mid-80s, creating the [http://spinroot.com/pico/pjw.html PJW Face] image that has appeared in innumerable locations, including T-shirts, coffee mugs, CDs, and at least one water tower. The [https://web.archive.org/web/20090727155248/http://ect.bell-labs.com/who/pfps/humour/pjw/conservancy/ sole remaining PJW Face] at Bell Labs is somewhat in disarray, but there are plans afoot to repair it.

Prior to joining Google, Weinberger was chief technology officer at Renaissance Technologies. Weinberger has been a member of the JASON defense advisory group since 1990.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mwhTHR8VdW4C&pg=PT228|title=The Jasons|last=Finkbeiner|first=Ann|page=228|publisher=Penguin|date=2006|isbn=9781101201282}} He has an Erdős number of 2.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date= |title=List of the 11,009 people with Erdos number equal to 2 |url=https://files.oakland.edu/users/grossman/enp/Erdos2.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230419103629/https://files.oakland.edu/users/grossman/enp/Erdos2.html |archive-date=April 19, 2023 |access-date=March 7, 2024 |website=}}