The Creation of the UNIX Operating System: Ken Thompson Biography

Kenneth Thompson

1943 -- Born in New Orleans, Louisiana

1943-1960 - Navy brat moving every few years

1965-66 -- Graduates with B.S and M.S. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley

1966 -- Joins Bell Labs Computing Research Department, working on the Multics project

1969 -- Develops UNIX* operating system

1970 -- Writes B language, precursor to Dennis Ritchie's C language

1971 -- Moves UNIX from the PDP-7 to the PDP-11

1973 -- Rewrites UNIX in Dennis Ritchie's C language

1973 -- Rewrites portions of UNIX to include Doug McIlroy's concept of pipes

1975-6 -- Visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley

1980 -- "Belle," a chess-playing computer he developed with Joe H. Condon, wins the U.S. and World Computing Chess Championships

1980 -- Elected to the U.S. National Academy of Engineering

1983 -- Named Bell Labs Fellow

1983 -- Receives with Dennis Ritchie the ACM Turing Award

1980 -- Elected to the U.S. National Academy of Science

1988 -- Visiting professor at the University of Sydney, Australia

1998 -- Awarded with Dennis Ritchie the National Medal of Technology for the development of the UNIX system

2000 -- Retires from Bell Labs