---
title: "Celebrating 70 years of Fortran"
slug: celebrating-70-years-of-fortran
url: https://listedarticles.com/articles/celebrating-70-years-of-fortran
canonical_url: https://fortran-lang.org/news/2026/09-15-Fortran-birthday/
content_type: blog_post
language: en
published_at: 2026-09-15T00:00:00.000Z
updated_at: 2026-10-15T20:16:29.400Z
author: "Joe Wallwork"
authored_by: human
publisher: "Fortran-lang"
publisher_url: https://fortran-lang.org/
topics: ["Programming Languages", "History", "Science", "Open Source"]
license: all-rights-reserved
word_count: 374
reading_minutes: 2
citation: "Joe Wallwork, Fortran-lang. \"Celebrating 70 years of Fortran.\" 15 Sept 2026. https://fortran-lang.org/news/2026/09-15-Fortran-birthday/ (all-rights-reserved)"
# The full text follows. The web page shows an extract and sends readers
# to the source above; quote the citation and link the canonical URL.
---

# Celebrating 70 years of Fortran

> Joe Wallwork marks seventy years since Fortran's 1957 debut: why the language still thrives in scientific computing, what the Fortran-lang community is building, and how modern Fortran fits high-performance and climate work.

# Celebrating 70 years of Fortran

*Joe Wallwork, Institute of Computing for Climate Science, University of
Cambridge, jw2423@cam.ac.uk*

One month from today (15th October) marks seventy years since the
[first Fortran manual](https://archive.computerhistory.org/resources/text/Fortran/102649787.05.01.acc.pdf)
was published, making it an extremely well established programming
language for scientific computing.

Over Fortran’s seven decades of usage, it has supported critical infrastructure
and technological advances in a range of scientific fields such as nuclear
engineering, weather and climate forecasting, and materials science. Fortran
continues to be the go-to language in these domains and others.

To celebrate Fortran’s outstanding contributions to advancing science and
engineering, the [Institute of Computing for Climate Science (ICCS)](https://iccs.cam.ac.uk/) will be hosting a ‘Celebrating 70 years of Fortran’ event at
the [Science and Industry Museum](https://www.scienceandindustrymuseum.org.uk/)
in Manchester, United Kingdom, on 1st December 2026.

## Workshop outline[#](#workshop-outline "Link to this heading")

The main workshop will be held from 14:30-18:15 in the museum conference suite
and will be followed by an evening drinks reception in the exhibition hall
(including a demonstration of the 1940’s experimental computer,
[‘Baby’](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchester_Baby)).

The workshop will take the form of a retrospective, with a keynote address from
**Damian Rouson, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory** looking back on how far
Fortran has come in the past 70 years, lightning talks about the current
exciting developments and community initiatives right now, and an open breakout
discussion looking forward to the next 70 years. There are opportunities to
submit lightning talks and posters, as well as to propose breakout discussion
topics.

## Sponsors[#](#sponsors "Link to this heading")

This event is make possible by the generous support of our sponsors. These
include platinum sponsors [AMD](https://www.amd.com/en.html) and
[Dell Technologies](https://www.dell.com/en-uk), as well as bronze sponsors
[CAKE](https://www.cake.ac.uk/), [OpenMP](https://www.openmp.org/), and
[ICCS](https://iccs.cam.ac.uk/).

## Registration[#](#registration "Link to this heading")

Attendance is free of charge, thanks to the support of our funders and sponsors.

To register, complete the following form:
<https://forms.gle/NjXfManJWmwLX7sc7>.

Whilst it will be a primarily in-person event, there will also be an option to
join remotely via Zoom.

**Registration will close on 9th November 2026.**

## Further information[#](#further-information "Link to this heading")

See the
[event webpage](https://fortran-index.github.io/fortran-index/page/fortran_birthday.html)
for all further details about the event, including the full programme and
instructions on how to submit lightning talks and posters.

This blog post was also published on the CAKE website at
<https://www.cake.ac.uk/news/fortran-birthday/>.

[Back to the Fortran Future 3](../05-05-Back-to-the-Fortran-Future-3/)


[Legacy Code Confessions](../09-21-legacy-code-confessions/)