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Ken Thompson

4 February 1943 – present

Kenneth Lane Thompson is an American computer scientist who co-created the Unix operating system with Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs. He also designed the B programming language, developed early computer chess, and later co-created the Go programming language at Google.

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Life events

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana
4 February 1943

Ken Thompson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Birth ✓
Studied at University of California, Berkeley
1965

Thompson earned bachelor's and master's degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from Berkeley.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Joined Bell Labs
1966

Thompson joined Bell Telephone Laboratories, where he began work on operating systems.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Co-created the Unix operating system
1969

Thompson led the creation of Unix with Dennis Ritchie at Bell Labs.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Developed the Belle chess computer
1980

Thompson built Belle, an early world-champion computer chess machine.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Received the Turing Award
1983

Thompson and Ritchie shared the ACM Turing Award for their work on Unix.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
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Awarded the National Medal of Technology
1999

Thompson and Ritchie received the National Medal of Technology.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Achievement ✓
Joined Google and co-created the Go language
2006

Thompson joined Google, where he co-designed the Go programming language.

Source: en.wikipedia.org
Career ✓