Editing John Vincent Atanasoff (section)

==Early life and education==
Atanasoff was born on October 4, 1903, in [[Hamilton (village), New York|Hamilton, New York]] to an electrical engineer and a school teacher.<ref name="NYT"/> Atanasoff's father, Ivan Atanasov, was of [[Bulgarians|Bulgarian]] origin, born in 1876 in the village of [[Boyadzhik]], close to [[Yambol]], then in the [[Ottoman Empire]]. While Ivan Atanasov was still an infant, his own father was killed by Ottoman soldiers after the Bulgarian [[April Uprising]].{{sfn|Atanasoff|1985}} In 1889, Ivan immigrated to the United States with his uncle. John's father later became an electrical engineer, whereas his mother, Iva Lucena Purdy (of mixed [[French Americans|French]] and [[Irish Americans|Irish]] ancestry), was a teacher of [[mathematics]].<ref>''The first electronic digital computer working on a binary code and using mathematical logic had been created in 1937-1942 by the American physicist of the Irish-Bulgarian origin John Vincent Atanasoff (1903-1995.)'' For more see: Mikhail Mikhailov (2005) Key to the Vedas, Belarusian Information Center, p. 62, {{ISBN|9856701872}}.</ref><ref>''My mother (she is still alive, at 89 years of age) is a typical American with a mixture of Irish, English and French blood, so that the Bulgarian language was never spoken in our house''. For more see: [[Blagovest Sendov]] (2003) John Atanasoff: The Electronic Prometheus, St. Kliment Ohridski University Press, Sofia, p. 57, {{ISBN|954071849X}}.</ref><ref>''During his variegated life, Atanasoff met and married a teacher of Mathematics, called Iva, with Irish and French blood in her veins. His wife bore eight children, one of whom was christened by his mother John – Vincent''. For more see: Dimitar Shishko (2001) John Atanasoff: The Father of the Computer, Tangra TanNakRa, p. 59, {{ISBN|9549942244}}.</ref>

Atanasoff was raised in [[Brewster, Florida]]. Young Atanasoff's ambitions and intellectual pursuits were in part influenced by his parents, whose interests in the natural and applied sciences cultivated in him a sense of critical curiosity and confidence.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}} At the age of nine, he learned to use a [[slide rule]], followed shortly by the study of [[logarithm]]s, and subsequently completed high school at [[Mulberry High School (Mulberry, Florida)|Mulberry High School]] in two years.{{citation needed|date=June 2021}} In 1925, Atanasoff received his Bachelor of Science degree in [[electrical engineering]] from the [[University of Florida]].<ref name="NYT"/>

He continued his education at [[Iowa State University|Iowa State College]] and in 1926 earned a [[master's degree]] in [[mathematics]].<ref name="NYT"/> He completed his formal education in 1930 by earning a [[PhD]] in [[theoretical physics]] from the [[University of Wisconsin–Madison]] with his thesis, ''The Dielectric Constant of Helium''.<ref name="NYT"/> Upon completion of his doctorate, Atanasoff accepted an assistant [[professor]]ship at Iowa State College in mathematics and [[physics]].{{citation needed|date=June 2021}}