On 10 Oct 2012, at 16:47, David Ryskalczyk <d235j.1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> So I was digging around some time back, and noticed these lines in the
> *BSD "Computer" calendar file:
> 
> 
> 06/30   First advanced degree on computer related topic: to H. Karamanian,
>        Temple Univ., Phila, 1948, for symbolic differentiation on the ENIAC
> 

...

> Recently, I tried again and found this:
> http://diamond.temple.edu/record=b1850797
> In short, the name in calendar.computer is misspelled, and the date is
> wrong too! The correct year is 1953, at least according to that
> record. (I haven't looked at the actual thesis yet.)
> Whether this is indeed the "First advanced degree on computer related
> topic" is something I'm not sure about — a cursory search didn't turn
> up any others that predate this one, but I didn't search very far.
> 

If 1953 is correct then Dave Wheeler's PhD predates it by about two years:

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/misc/obituaries/wheeler