 |
| Dennis Ritchie stands over Ken Thompson as he works on the PDP-11 in 1972. |
Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie ,
[1][2][3][4] was an American
computer scientist who "helped shape the digital era."
[1] He created the
C programming language and, with long-time colleague
Ken Thompson, the
Unix operating system.
[1] Ritchie and Thompson received the
Turing Award from the
ACM in 1983, the
Hamming Medal from the
IEEE in 1990 and the
National Medal of Technology from
President Clinton in 1999. Ritchie was the head of
Lucent Technologies System Software Research Department when he retired in 2007. He was the 'R' in
K&R C and commonly known by his
username dmr.
(b. September 9, 1941; found dead October 12, 2011)
Early life
Ritchie was born in
Bronxville, New York. His father was Alistair E. Ritchie, a longtime
Bell Labs scientist and co-author of
The Design of Switching Circuits on
switching circuit theory. He moved with his family to
Summit, New Jersey, as a child, where he graduated from
Summit High School.
[5]
Career
Ritchie graduated from
Harvard University with
degrees in
physics and
applied mathematics.
In 1967, he began working at the Bell Labs Computing Sciences Research
Center, and in 1968, he received a PhD from Harvard under the
supervision of
Patrick C. Fischer, his doctoral dissertation being "Program Structure and Computational Complexity".
[6]
Ken Thompson [L] and Dennis Ritchie [R]
Ritchie was best known as the creator of the
C programming language, a key developer of the
Unix operating system, and co-author of the book
The C Programming Language, and was the 'R' in
K&R (a common reference to the book's authors
Kernighan and Ritchie). Ritchie worked together with
Ken Thompson,
the scientist credited with writing the original Unix; one of Ritchie's
most important contributions to Unix was its porting to different
machines and platforms.
[7]
The C language is widely used today in application,
operating system, and
embedded system
development, and its influence is seen in most modern programming
languages. Unix has also been influential, establishing concepts and
principles that are now precepts of computing.
Awards
Thompson (left) and Ritchie (center) receiving the National Medal of Technology from President
Clinton in 1999
In 1983, Ritchie and Thompson received the
Turing Award for their development of generic operating systems theory and specifically for the implementation of the UNIX operating system. Ritchie's Turing Award lecture was titled "Reflections on Software Research".
[8] In 1990, both Ritchie and Thompson received the
IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal from the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), "for the origination of the UNIX operating system and the C programming language".
[9]
In 1997, both Ritchie and Thompson were made Fellows of the
Computer History Museum, "for co-creation of the UNIX operating system, and for development of the C programming language."
On April 21, 1999, Thompson and Ritchie jointly received the
National Medal of Technology of 1998 from President
Bill Clinton
for co-inventing the UNIX operating system and the C programming
language which, according to the citation for the medal, "led to
enormous advances in computer hardware, software, and networking systems
and stimulated growth of an entire industry, thereby enhancing American
leadership in the Information Age".
[10][11]
In 2005, the
Industrial Research Institute awarded Ritchie with its
Achievement Award
in recognition of his contribution to science and technology, and to
society generally, with his development of the Unix operating system.
[12]
In 2011, Ritchie, along with Thompson, was awarded the
Japan Prize for Information and Communications for his work in the development of the Unix operating system.
[13]
Death and legacy
Ritchie was found dead on October 12, 2011, at the age of 70 at his home in
Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, where he lived alone.
[1] First news of his death came from his former colleague,
Rob Pike.
[2][3] The cause and exact time of death have not been disclosed.
[14] He had been in frail health for several years following treatment for
prostate cancer and
heart disease.
[1][2][15][16] His death came a week after
Steve Jobs', but did not receive as much media coverage.
[17][18] Computer historian
Paul E. Ceruzzi
said after his death: "Ritchie was under the radar. His name was not a
household name at all, but... if you had a microscope and could look in a
computer, you'd see his work everywhere inside."
[19]
In an interview shortly after Ritchie's death long time colleague
Brian Kernighan said Ritchie never expected C to be so significant.
[20]
Kernighan reminded readers of how important a role C and UNIX had
played in the development of later high-profile projects, like the
iPhone.
[21][22]
Other testimonials to his influence followed.
[23][24][25][26]
The
Fedora 16 Linux distribution, which was released about a month after he died, was dedicated to his memory.
[27] FreeBSD 9.0, released January 12, 2012 was also dedicated in his memory.
[28]
To see more of who died in 2011
click here
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