Pioneers

Ken Thompson

Citation Formats

General Reference

Computing Atlas. "Ken Thompson." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://computing.interactiveatlas.org/pioneers/ken-thompson.

APA Style

Computing Atlas. (n.d.). Ken Thompson. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://computing.interactiveatlas.org/pioneers/ken-thompson

BibTeX

@misc{computingatlas-ken-thompson,
  author = {Computing Atlas},
  title = {Ken Thompson},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://computing.interactiveatlas.org/pioneers/ken-thompson},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

Ken Thompson is an American computer scientist who, with Dennis Ritchie, created the Unix operating system at Bell Labs beginning in 1969, and who designed the B programming language that Ritchie developed into C. Thompson and Ritchie shared the 1983 ACM Turing Award for their work on Unix; Thompson later co-created the Go programming language at Google.

Facts

Birth Year

1943 1

Birth Date

1943-02-04 2

Nationality

American 1

Cross-Tradition Connections

Sources

1. Computer History Museum

Computer History Museum1997 Fellow citation

Quote, 1997 Fellow citation

For his co-creation, with Dennis Ritchie, of the UNIX operating system, and for development of the C programming language

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1. Computer History Museum

Computer History MuseumIn Field: Operating SystemsView the Source

2. Wikipedia: Ken Thompson

Wikimedia FoundationEarly life and education

Quote, Early life and education

Thompson worked at Bell Labs for most of his career where he designed and implemented the original Unix operating system.

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2. Wikipedia: Ken Thompson

Wikimedia FoundationInfobox

Quote, Infobox

Kenneth Lane Thompson (1943-02-04) February 4, 1943 (age 83), New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.

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ACM A.M. Turing Award Citations

Association for Computing MachineryCitation

Quote, Citation

With Dennis M. Ritchie, for their development of generic operating systems theory and specifically for the implementation of the UNIX operating system.

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ACM A.M. Turing Award Citations

Association for Computing MachineryInvented: UnixView the Source

Wikipedia: Go (programming language)

Wikimedia FoundationInvented: Go, History sectionView the Source

Wikipedia: Regular expression

Wikimedia FoundationAssociated With: Regular Expression, History section

Quote, Associated With: Regular Expression, History section