Named in honor of the mathematician John Atanasoff (1903–1995), a pioneer in the development of computers who between 1936 and 1942 created an operating model with regenerative memory that utilized a magnetic drum and some relay logical schemes. At the same time he lectured on mathematics and physics at Iowa State University. Atanasoff, whose father was a Bulgarian, has been a member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences since 1983. (M 12806) _ _.