COMPUTER SCIENTIST

Ken Thompson

1943 - Today

Photo of Ken Thompson

Icon of person Ken Thompson

Kenneth Lane Thompson (born February 4, 1943) is an American pioneer of computer science. Thompson worked at Bell Labs for most of his career where he designed and implemented the original Unix operating system. He also invented the B programming language, the direct predecessor to the C programming language, and was one of the creators and early developers of the Plan 9 operating system. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Ken Thompson has received more than 2,428,140 page views. His biography is available in 56 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 55 in 2019). Ken Thompson is the 19th most popular computer scientist, the 1,368th most popular biography from United States (up from 1,393rd in 2019) and the 12th most popular American Computer Scientist.

Ken Thompson is most famous for inventing the Unix operating system.

Memorability Metrics

  • 2.4M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 60.63

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 56

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 4.72

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.98

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Page views of Ken Thompsons by language

Over the past year Ken Thompson has had the most page views in the with 271,796 views, followed by Russian (20,042), and German (16,509). In terms of yearly growth of page views the top 3 wikpedia editions are Esperanto (113.15%), Kirghiz (72.00%), and Sinhalese (67.99%)

Among COMPUTER SCIENTISTS

Among computer scientists, Ken Thompson ranks 19 out of 245. Before him are Edgar F. Codd, Marvin Minsky, Ivan Sutherland, George Dantzig, Ray Kurzweil, and John Backus. After him are Dorothy Vaughan, Vint Cerf, Guido van Rossum, Alan Kay, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin.

Most Popular Computer Scientists in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1943, Ken Thompson ranks 95. Before him are Barbara Bouchet, Mario J. Molina, Fouad Siniora, Jacques Attali, Paul Van Himst, and George Benson. After him are Max Wright, Oskar Lafontaine, Ri Chun-hee, Reinaldo Arenas, Jacques Laffite, and Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela.

Others Born in 1943

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Ken Thompson ranks 1,368 out of 20,380. Before him are John G. Avildsen (1935), Tyler Perry (1969), Dave Mustaine (1961), Mike Powell (1963), Martin Balsam (1919), and George Benson (1943). After him are George Davis Snell (1903), Ludacris (1977), Rodney King (1965), Ron Jeremy (1953), Vincente Minnelli (1903), and Dorothy Vaughan (1910).

Others born in United States

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Among COMPUTER SCIENTISTS In United States

Among computer scientists born in United States, Ken Thompson ranks 12. Before him are Andrew S. Tanenbaum (1944), Marvin Minsky (1927), Ivan Sutherland (1938), George Dantzig (1914), Ray Kurzweil (1948), and John Backus (1924). After him are Dorothy Vaughan (1910), Vint Cerf (1943), Alan Kay (1940), Larry Page (1973), Kevin Mitnick (1963), and Ward Cunningham (1949).

American born Computer Scientists

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