Co-authorship proximity of A. M. Turing Award and John von Neumann Medal winners to the disciplinary boundaries of computer science

Abstract

It is shown that winners of the A. M. Turing Award or the John von Neumann Medal, both of which recognize achievement in computer science, are separated from some other A. M. Turing Award or John von Neumann Medal winner by at most 1.4 co-authorship steps on average, and from some cross-disciplinary broker, and hence from some discipline other than computer science, by at most 1.6 co-authorship steps on average. A. M. Turing Award and John von Neumann Medal recipients during this period are, therefore, on average closer in co-authorship terms to some other discipline that typical computer scientists are, on average, to each other.