An example

I am trying to find an example to write about. I will of course use and share my experience. But I need to choose a big researcher who is also a software designer, to write about him or her to inspire the readers.
If you ask me to list big software researchers, I have been so many years in Norway, that I first think of Kristen Nygaard, the inventor of the first object oriented language. he died in 2002. He still has his home page up and running at University of Oslo. I am not sure I will write about him. I am even not sure if I should first decide which criteria to look for when looking for the big researcher who is also a software designer. It sounds like a typical research design choice.