COMPUTER SCIENTIST

Alan Kay

1940 - Today

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Alan Curtis Kay (born May 17, 1940) is an American computer scientist best known for his pioneering work on object-oriented programming and windowing graphical user interface (GUI) design. At Xerox PARC he led the design and development of the first modern windowed computer desktop interface. There he also led the development of the influential object-oriented programming language Smalltalk, both personally designing most of the early versions of the language and coining the term "object-oriented." He has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Royal Society of Arts. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Alan Kay has received more than 1,198,427 page views. His biography is available in 37 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 35 in 2019). Alan Kay is the 23rd most popular computer scientist, the 1,689th most popular biography from United States (down from 1,665th in 2019) and the 15th most popular American Computer Scientist.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.2M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 59.22

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 37

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 6.30

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.34

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among COMPUTER SCIENTISTS

Among computer scientists, Alan Kay ranks 23 out of 245. Before him are Ray Kurzweil, John Backus, Ken Thompson, Dorothy Vaughan, Vint Cerf, and Guido van Rossum. After him are Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Peter Naur, Kevin Mitnick, Ward Cunningham, and Barbara Liskov.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1940, Alan Kay ranks 108. Before him are Frida Boccara, Arieh Warshel, Víctor Erice, Fabrizio De André, Lothar de Maizière, and Vladimir Cosma. After him are Sadaharu Oh, Saul Kripke, Vicente Fernández, Masahiro Hamazaki, Régis Debray, and Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf.

Others Born in 1940

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Alan Kay ranks 1,689 out of 20,380. Before him are Robert Wilson (1941), Jerry Reed (1937), Maria Mitchell (1818), Ralph Bellamy (1904), Seymour Hersh (1937), and Diane Lane (1965). After him are Michael P. Anderson (1959), Griffin Dunne (1955), Lee Iacocca (1924), Rosanna Arquette (1959), Richard Fleischer (1916), and Stevie Nicks (1948).

Others born in United States

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Among COMPUTER SCIENTISTS In United States

Among computer scientists born in United States, Alan Kay ranks 15. Before him are George Dantzig (1914), Ray Kurzweil (1948), John Backus (1924), Ken Thompson (1943), Dorothy Vaughan (1910), and Vint Cerf (1943). After him are Larry Page (1973), Kevin Mitnick (1963), Ward Cunningham (1949), Barbara Liskov (1939), Allen Newell (1927), and Leonard Kleinrock (1934).

American born Computer Scientists

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