Clarence L. "Ben" Coates

Who was Clarence L. "Ben" Coates?

Clarence L. “Ben” Coates was an American computer scientist and engineer known for his work on waveform recognition devices, circuit gates and accumulators.

Coates joined the faculty at Purdue University in 1973 as head of the School of Electrical Engineering where, for the next decade, he emphasized computer education and the development of computing facilities. He was a driving force behind the high performance computing and networking plan that led to the creation of the Engineering Computer Network serving all of Purdue's engineering schools. He also initiated a degree program in computer engineering at Purdue. He returned to teaching in the computer field full-time in 1983 before retiring in 1988.

Coates earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Kansas in 1944 and 1948. He received his doctorate from the University of Illinois in 1953. He taught electrical engineering and computer science at the universities of Illinois, Kansas and Texas and at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute before coming to Purdue. He directed the Electronics Research Center and supervised the engineering computer facilities at Texas and started a graduate program in information sciences. At Illinois, he directed the Coordinated Sciences Laboratory, an interdisciplinary lab focused on computers, information processing and electronics.