Stibitz, George Robert

George Robert Stibitz, (born April 20, 1904, York, Pa., U.S.—died Jan. 31, 1995, Hanover, N.H.), U.S. mathematician and inventor. He received a Ph.D. from Cornell University. In 1940 he and Samuel Williams, a colleague at Bell Labs, built the Complex Number Calculator, considered a forerunner of the digital computer. He accomplished the first remote computer operation by inputting problems via a teleprinter, and he pioneered computer applications in biomedical areas, such as the movement of oxygen in the lungs, brain cell structure, diffusion of nutrients and drugs in the body, and capillary transport. The holder of 38 patents, he was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame in 1983.