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Pioneer

Dennis Ritchie

Also Known As Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie · A. Rit?i · dmr
Software And Its Engineering

Dennis Ritchie was an American computer scientist who created the C programming language at Bell Labs in the early 1970s and, together with Ken Thompson, rewrote the Unix operating system in C, which made Unix practical to port across different kinds of computer hardware for the first time. Ritchie and Thompson shared the 1983 ACM Turing Award for their work on Unix.

Facts
Birth Year
1941 1
Birth Date
1941-09-09 2
Death Year
2011 1
Death Date
2011-10-12 2
Wikipedia lead marks the death date as approximate (c. October 12, 2011); the Death section states he was found dead at his home in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey on that date after being in frail health for several years. Exact date of death not independently established beyond the date he was found.
Nationality
American 1
Award
Harold Pender Award 3
Award
National Inventors Hall of Fame 3
Award
IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal 3
Award
Turing Award 3
Award
Computer History Museum Fellow 3
Award
Computer Pioneer Award 3
Award
IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award 3
Award
IRI Achievement Award 3
Award
Japan Prize 3
Award
National Medal of Technology and Innovation 3
Award
ACM Software System Award 3
Connections

Associated With

Plan 9 from Bell Labs, Systems

In Field

Operating Systems, Fields
Source Computer History Museum

Invented

C, Programming Languages
Source Computer History Museum
Unix, Systems
Source ACM A.M. Turing Award Citations

Invented By

Research Unix, Systems
Source Wikidata: Research Unix
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Computer History Museum
Computer History Museum
  • 1997 Fellow citation
    For his cocreation, with Ken Thompson, of the UNIX operating system, and for development of the C programming language
  • In Field: Operating Systems
  • Invented: C
View the Source
2. Wikipedia: Dennis Ritchie
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Early life and education
    He created, together with long-time colleague Ken Thompson, the Unix operating system, C programming language, and B programming language.
  • lead sentence, parenthetical birth date
    Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie (September 9, 1941
  • Death section, first sentence
    Ritchie was found dead on October 12, 2011, at the age of 70 at his home in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, where he lived alone
View the Source
3. Wikidata: Dennis Ritchie
Wikidata Q45575, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)View the Source
ACM A.M. Turing Award Citations
Association for Computing Machinery
  • Citation
    With Ken Thompson, for their development of generic operating systems theory and specifically for the implementation of the UNIX operating system.
  • Invented: Unix
View the Source
Wikidata: Research Unix
Invented By: Research Unix, Wikidata Q2666693 P178 (developer) claim -> Q45575 (Dennis Ritchie); computing atlas pioneer entity 262615, checked 2026-09-28View the Source
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