A math whiz as a young man, he later blazed trails, both with his theoretical advances and his advocacy for minority students.

He built interfaces that allowed engineers, scientists and everyday people to solve difficult problems without having to write the underlying code.

In 1995, he and Thomas Bopp spotted, from different states, the same mysterious object in the sky. What turned out to be a comet was named after them: Hale-Bopp.

He mapped the herpes simplex virus genome, revealing how it invades cells. His work also helped lay the groundwork for potential vaccines and gene therapies.