= Edsger W. Dijkstra
{c}
{title2=1930–2002}
{wiki}
= Edsger Wybe Dijkstra
{c}
{synonym}
<Edsger W. Dijkstra> was a <computer scientist> whose work includes the <Dijkstra algorithm> for shortest paths with nonnegative <edge weights>. Its key step finalizes the unsettled <vertex> with the smallest tentative distance; nonnegative <edge weights> ensure that a later route cannot improve that distance.<A Note on Two Problems in Connexion with Graphs by Edsger W. Dijkstra>[1959, problem 2]{ref}
The same short paper also treated the <minimum spanning tree> problem. The distinction is instructive: minimizing the total weight of a connecting tree differs from minimizing routes from a source. Dijkstra later recalled devising the shortest-path example for a 1956 computer demonstration using a simplified Dutch railway map, a concrete explanation of the computational task for a general audience.<Reflections on A Note on Two Problems in Connexion with Graphs by Edsger W. Dijkstra>[EWD841a, recollection of the 1956 demonstration]{ref}
\Image[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:Redirect/file/Edsger_Wybe_Dijkstra.jpg?width=250]
{title=Portrait of <Edsger W. Dijkstra>}
{description=Hamilton Richards. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/[CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.}
{source=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Edsger_Wybe_Dijkstra.jpg}
{width=250}
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