Bill Gates published an academic paper in 1978 ...
"The problem is notable as the only well-known mathematics paper ever written by Microsoft founder Bill Gates (as William Gates), entitled "Bounds for Sorting by Prefix Reversal". Published in 1978, it describes an efficient algorithm for pancake sorting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pancake_sorting#History
Bounds For Sorting By Prefix Reversal.pdf