Clarence Leroy “Ben” Coates (November 5, 1923 – October 25, 2000) was an American computer scientist and engineer known for his work on waveform recognition devices, circuit gates and accumulators.
He then taught electrical engineering and computer science at the universities of Illinois, Kansas and UT Austin and at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute before going to Purdue.
He directed the Electronics Research Center and supervised the engineering computer facilities at Texas and started a graduate program in information sciences.
At Illinois, he directed the Coordinated Sciences Laboratory, an interdisciplinary lab focused on computers, information processing and electronics.
He was named a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 1974 and the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1980.