Kenneth Lane Thompson

Born

Feb 4, 1943

New Orleans, LA

Bachelor's Degree

May 27, 1965

Electrical Engineering, University of California (Berklee)

Master's Degree

Mar 27, 1966

Electrical Engineering, University of California (Berklee)

Hired by Bell Labs

May 28, 1966

Currently named Nokia Bell Labs, previously called AT&T Bell Laboratories, Bell Telephone Laboratories, is a research company that specializes in scientific development.

Created the B programming langauge

Jan 1, 1969

Along with Dennis Ritchie, the B programming language was intended for system programming use rather than numerical applications. The programming language was been improved since then, having different titles such as C, C++, and Java. In 2004, a new programming language called D was created, that supposedly does not contain the faults that popular compilers like Java, C++ and C# have.

Created game Space Travels

Mar 27, 1969

Developed in Bell Labs, Space Travel was one of the first video games. The player controls a space ship and flies through space landing on objects. The game was originally written on the computer GE 635, then on the PDP-7.

Development of Unix begins

Jan 1, 1970

At Bell Labs, Thompson and Ritchie were developing a computer operating system that would eventually become the first portable operating system, compatible with multiple computers. Unix was derived from work on an operating system called Multics, which was the previous project at Bell Labs before the work on Unix began. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoVQTPbD6UY

Elected to the Nation Academy of Engineering

Jan 1, 1980

https://www.nae.edu/MembersSection/Directory20412/28454.aspx

Received the Turing Award with Ritchie

Mar 27, 1983

This award is given by the Association for Computing Machinery to "an individual selected for contributions of a technical nature made to the computing community". Thompson and Ritchie received the award "for their development of generic operating systems theory and specifically for the implementation of the UNIX operating system."

Developed the UTF-8 encoding scheme with Rob Pike

Jan 1, 1992

The UTF-8 encoding system is a character coding with the ability to encode all code points regardless of the code's original compatibility. UTF-8 is currently the main character coding for the world wide web.

Received the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers with Dennis Ritchie

Mar 27, 1993

The medal was created in honor of Richard W. Hamming, who was a significant figure in the development of computers and advancement in the world of computer science. Thompson and Ritchie received the award for "for the origination of the UNIX operating system and the C programming language".

Inducted as a Fellow of the Computer History Museum with Dennis Ritchie

Mar 27, 1997

Thompson was made a fellow "For his co-creation, with Dennis Ritchie, of the UNIX operating system, and for development of the C programming language." http://www.computerhistory.org/fellowawards/hall/ken-thompson/

Received the first Tsutomu Kanai Award

Mar 27, 1999

Given by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers , Thompson received the award "for his role in creating the UNIX operating system, which for decades has been a key platform for distributed systems work."

Received the 1998 National Medal of Technology with Dennis Ritchie

Apr 27, 1999

The award was given to Thompson by president Bill Clinton for co-inventing Unix.

"Go" programming language created at Google with Robert Griesemer and Rob Pike

Jan 1, 2007

Go is a free, open source programming language. It was largely based of the C programming language, but it was created to be easier, simpler, and safer.

Received the Japan Prize for Information and Communications

Jan 25, 2011

Received for the category of information and and communications, Thompson and Ritchie were awarded the esteemed international Japan Prize for their innovation in the development of the Unix system.

Died

Oct 9, 2016