Dennis Ritchie was an American computer scientist who is widely recognized for his contributions to the development of the [[C]] programming language and the [[Unix]] operating system. He was born on September 9, 1941, in Bronxville, New York, and passed away on October 12, 2011. Ritchie earned his bachelor's degree in physics from Harvard University in 1963 and went on to obtain his PhD in mathematics from Harvard as well in 1968. During his time at Harvard, he worked on the Multics project at MIT's Project MAC. It was during this period that Ritchie developed an interest in operating systems and programming languages. In the late 1960s, Ritchie joined Bell Labs (then known as AT&T Bell Laboratories) where he began working with Ken Thompson on developing the Unix operating system. Together, they created a new programming language called "B," which eventually evolved into C. Ritchie's contribution to C was monumental as it became one of the most influential programming languages of all time, widely used for system programming and embedded systems. Ritchie played a crucial role in developing Unix into a robust and powerful operating system. He contributed significantly to its design and implementation, making it portable across different hardware platforms. Unix became highly popular among academic institutions and corporations due to its stability, flexibility, and modularity. Dennis Ritchie received numerous accolades for his work throughout his career. In 1983, he was awarded the Turing Award (often referred to as the Nobel Prize of computing) jointly with Ken Thompson for their development of generic operating systems theory and specifically for their implementation of Unix. Additionally, Ritchie received the National Medal of Technology from President Bill Clinton in 1999. Even though Dennis Ritchie made groundbreaking contributions to computer science and software engineering, he remained modest and low-key throughout his life. His work continues to influence modern computing systems and software development practices, making him one of the most important figures in the history of computer science. # References ```dataview Table title as Title, authors as Authors where contains(subject, "Dennis Ritchie") ```