Dennis Ritchie
Dennis Ritchie | |
|---|---|
Ritchie in 2011 | |
| Born | Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie September 9, 1941 Bronxville, New York, U.S. |
| Died | c. October 12, 2011 (aged 70) |
| Education | Harvard University (BS) |
| Known for | ALTRAN B BCPL C Multics Unix |
| Awards | IEEE Emanuel R. Piore Award (1982) Turing Award (1983) National Medal of Technology (1998) IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal (1990) Computer Pioneer Award (1994) Computer History Museum Fellow (1997) Harold Pender Award (2003) Japan Prize (2011) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Computer science |
| Institutions | Lucent Technologies Bell Labs |
| Doctoral advisor | Patrick C. Fischer |
| Website | www |
Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie (September 9, 1941 – c. October 12, 2011) was an American computer scientist. He created the C programming language and the Unix operating system and B language with long-time colleague Ken Thompson. Ritchie and Thompson were awarded the Turing Award from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) in 1983, the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 1990, and the National Medal of Technology from President Bill Clinton in 1999.
Ritchie was the head of Lucent Technologies System Software Research Department when he retired in 2007.