William Poduska

John William Poduska Sr. is an American engineer and entrepreneur . He was a founder of Prime Computer, Apollo Computer, and Stellar Computer. Prior to that he headed the Electronics Research Lab at NASA's Cambridge, Massachusetts, facility and also worked at Honeywell.

Poduska was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1986 for technical and entrepreneurial leadership in computing, including development of Prime, the first virtual memory minicomputer, and Apollo, the first distributed, co-operating workstation. Poduska currently serves as a trustee at Bentley University.

Education Poduska was born in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1955, he graduated from Central High School in Memphis. He went on to earn a S.B. and S.M. in electrical engineering, both in 1960, from MIT. He also earned a Sc.D. in EECS from MIT in 1962.

Career Employment Novell, Inc. Prime Computer, Inc. Founder and VP, R&D Honeywell Inc. Dir, Honeywell Info Sciences Cente Stardent Computer, Inc. President and CEO Cambridge Technology Partners Stellar Computers Inc. Founder, Chairman and CEO Apollo Computer Inc. Founder and Chairman Advanced Visual Systems Inc.

Awards Recipient of the McDowell Award, National Academy of Engineering, 1986