The following is an appreciation for the contributions of Edgar Frank Codd, the principal contributor to modern relational database theory. Codd’s work echos in software and technology all around us. Tech giants have built software platforms based on his work. His mark is found in Entity Relationship diagrams and Structured Query Languages. All done, in large part thanks Codd’s major work. I asked AI to generate a short biography, and the results returned as follows:

“Edgar Frank Codd was born in Portland, Dorset, England, on August 19, 1923. He was a British-born American computer scientist and mathematician who is credited with inventing the relational data model, which revolutionized the way data is stored, retrieved and manipulated. Codd showed an interest in computers and mathematics from a young age, and went on to study mathematics and biology at the University of Oxford. After graduating in 1949, Codd joined the National Physical Laboratory, where he worked on the first commercial computers. It was during his time at the National Physical Laboratory that Codd developed his seminal work on the relational data model. His paper, titled “A Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks”, was published in 1970, and set out the idea of a database in which data could be stored and accessed in tables, with each row representing a single data item. Following his work on the relational model, Codd went on to work for IBM, where he was responsible for developing the Structured Query Language (SQL) for accessing data in relational databases. This has since become the standard for accessing data in relational databases, and is used widely today. Codd was recognised for his work with numerous awards and honours, including the ACM Turing Award, the highest distinction in computer science, which he received in 1981. He also received the National Medal of Technology in 1992, in recognition of his work on the relational data model. In addition to his work in computer science, Codd was also a keen mathematician, and was the author of several books on the subject. He was also a keen advocate of the scientific method, and wrote several papers on the subject. Codd passed away on April 18, 2003, at the age of 79. He will be remembered for his pioneering work on the relational model, which revolutionized the way data was stored, retrieved and manipulated. His work is still used widely today, and is an integral part of the modern computing landscape.”