New games! PlayTrivia andBirthle.

COMPUTER SCIENTIST

Alan Kay

1940 - Today

Photo of Alan Kay

Icon of person Alan Kay

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 1,153,984 page views. His biography is available in 35 different languages on Wikipedia. Alan Kay is the 23rd most popular computer scientist (down from 19th in 2019), the 1,665th most popular biography from United States (down from 1,595th in 2019) and the 14th most popular American Computer Scientist.

Memorability Metrics

  • 1.2M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 58.70

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 35

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 5.84

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.20

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Page views of Alan Kays by language


Among COMPUTER SCIENTISTS

Among computer scientists, Alan Kay ranks 23 out of 201. Before him are Andrew S. Tanenbaum, Ray Kurzweil, Ken Thompson, Dorothy Vaughan, Marvin Minsky, and Guido van Rossum. After him are John Backus, Satoshi Nakamoto, Ward Cunningham, Jef Raskin, Leonard Kleinrock, and Kevin Mitnick.

Most Popular Computer Scientists in Wikipedia

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Contemporaries

Among people born in 1940, Alan Kay ranks 100. Before him are Joseph L. Goldstein, Régis Debray, Vladimir Cosma, Frida Boccara, Vittorio Storaro, and Gojko Mitić. After him are Edward C. Prescott, Fabrizio De André, Sepp Piontek, Shozo Tsugitani, Toshihide Maskawa, and Elke Sommer.

Others Born in 1940

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

In United States

Among people born in United States, Alan Kay ranks 1,665 out of 18,182. Before him are Jennifer Lawrence (1990), Robert Sheckley (1928), Chuck Yeager (1923), Will.i.am (1975), Don DeLillo (1936), and Dave Mustaine (1961). After him are Frank Stella (1936), Lee Remick (1935), Ornette Coleman (1930), William C. Durant (1861), Temple Grandin (1947), and Matthew Perry (1969).

Others born in United States

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous

Among COMPUTER SCIENTISTS In United States

Among computer scientists born in United States, Alan Kay ranks 14. Before him are Vint Cerf (1943), Andrew S. Tanenbaum (1944), Ray Kurzweil (1948), Ken Thompson (1943), Dorothy Vaughan (1910), and Marvin Minsky (1927). After him are John Backus (1924), Ward Cunningham (1949), Jef Raskin (1943), Leonard Kleinrock (1934), Kevin Mitnick (1963), and Ivan Sutherland (1938).

American born Computer Scientists

Go to all Rankings
Load previousLoad previous
  • DatawheelCL