We are saddened to share that 2017 CHM Fellow Cleve Moler passed away on May 20, 2026, at the age of 86 at his home surrounded by his family.
Moler was a visionary mathematician, computer scientist, and cofounder of MathWorks. Recognized globally as the creator of MATLAB, Moler revolutionized numerical computing and transformed how scientists, engineers, and researchers model the world.
Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1939, Moler was a precocious student who discovered a passion for numerical analysis at Caltech, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1961. He earned his PhD at Stanford University under legendary computer science pioneer George Forsythe, initiating a lifelong fascination with matrices.
Over a distinguished 20-year academic career spanning the University of Michigan and the University of New Mexico, Moler sought to make complex mathematics accessible. In the 1970s, after co-authoring the LINPACK and EISPACK Fortran libraries, he created the first version of MATLAB ("Matrix Laboratory") as a simple, interactive calculator to help his students bypass Fortran programming.
Recognizing its vast potential beyond the classroom, Moler partnered with Jack Little and Steve Bangert to commercialize the platform for the nascent IBM PC, founding MathWorks in 1984. Under his guidance as chief mathematician, MATLAB grew from a classroom utility into a global ecosystem utilized by millions across aerospace, genetics, finance, and engineering. As colleague, friend, and supercomputing pioneer Jack Dongarra notes, “Through MATLAB, Cleve changed the way generations of scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and students think about computation, experimentation, and problem solving.”
Honored as a Computer History Museum Fellow in 2017, Moler leaves a legacy defined by profound intellectual humility and an enduring impact on modern technology. To a person, those who knew him speak of his kindness, willingness to listen and gentle mentorship. He is remembered as a brilliant educator and the maestro who taught computers to speak the elegant language of the matrix.
Cleve Moler at the 2017 CHM Fellow Awards
Cleve Moler: The Mozart of the Matrix
A History of MATLAB, Moler, C., Little, J., Published in Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages, Vol. 4, No. HOPL, June 2020.
