Dennis M. Ritchie
![[ Dennis Ritchie ]](http://www.bell-labs.com/history/unix/images/ritchie.jpeg)
1941 -- Born in Bronxville, N.Y.
1963 -- Graduates from Harvard University with a
B.S. in Physics
1968 -- Receives from Harvard University a Ph.D.
in mathematics
1967 -- Joins Bell Labs, following his father,
Alistair E. Ritchie, who had a long career there
1968 -- Joins the Bell Labs team working on
Multics, a joint effort of Bell Labs, MIT and GE to develop a
general computer operating system
1972 -- Creates C language
1989 -- Receives with Ken Thompson the NEC
C&C Prize for significant contributions to computer
technology
1983 -- Named Bell Labs Fellow
1988 -- Elected to the U.S. National Academy of
Engineering
1990 -- Appointed head, System Software Research
Department in the Computer Sciences Research Center at Bell Labs,
Murray Hill, N.J.
1995 -- Heads the effort to create the Plan 9
operating system
1996 -- Heads the effort to create the
Inferno(TM) operating system
1998 -- Awarded with Kenneth Thompson the U.S.
National Medal of Technology for the development of
the UNIX system
![[ UNIX building blocks ]](http://www.bell-labs.com/history/unix/images/86-300838-EM.jpeg)
| 
