Kenneth Thompson
![[ Ken Thompson ]](images/thompson.jpeg)
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
![[ UNIX building blocks ]](images/86-300838-EM.jpeg)
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