# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/brian-kernighan
# Generated: 2026-08-31T20:27:37.381Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/brian-kernighan"
name: "Brian Kernighan"
slug: "brian-kernighan"
description: "Brian Wilson Kernighan is a Canadian computer scientist.\nHe worked at Bell Labs and contributed to the development of Unix alongside Unix creators Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. Kernighan's name became widely known through co-authorship of the first book on the C programming language with Dennis Ritchie. Kernighan affirmed that he had no part in the design of the C language."
tagline: "Canadian computer scientist, co-inventor of the Unix operating system"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Brian_Kernighan_in_2012_at_Bell_Labs_1.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "Canada"
  isoCode: "CA"
category:
  name: "Developers"
  slug: "developers"
profileType:
  name: "Developer"
  slug: "developer"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5482740"
birthDate: "1942-01-01"
livingStatus: "LIVING"
scores:
  popularity:           57.88
  momentum:             12.96
  historical:           24.250524
  currentAttention:     6.285714285714286
  sourceConfidence:     65
  profileCompleteness:  75
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: 68
platforms:
  - platform:  "WEBSITE"
    url:       "https://www.cs.princeton.edu/~bwk/"
sources:
  - url: "https://dag.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan"
    title: "Brian Kernighan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://af.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan"
    title: "Brian Kernighan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%8A%D9%86_%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%BA%D8%A7%D9%86"
    title: "براين كيرنيغان"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://arz.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%8A%D9%86_%D9%83%D9%8A%D8%B1%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%86"
    title: "براين كيرنيجان"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://azb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%A7%D9%86_%DA%A9%D8%B1%D9%86%DB%8C%D9%82%D8%A7%D9%86"
    title: "برایان کرنیقان"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breyn_Kerniqan"
    title: "Breyn Kerniqan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%8F%D0%BD_%D0%9A%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BD%D1%96%D0%B3%D0%B0%D0%BD"
    title: "Браян Керніган"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%AC%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%B0%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%AF%E0%A6%BC%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A8_%E0%A6%89%E0%A6%87%E0%A6%B2%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%A8_%E0%A6%95%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A8%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%82%E0%A6%B9%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A8"
    title: "ব্রায়ান উইলসন কার্নিংহান"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan"
    title: "Brian Kernighan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan"
    title: "Brian Kernighan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_W._Kernighan"
    title: "Brian W. Kernighan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan"
    title: "Brian Kernighan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan"
    title: "Brian Kernighan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan"
    title: "Brian Kernighan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%A7%D9%86_%DA%A9%D8%B1%D9%86%DB%8C%DA%AF%D8%A7%D9%86"
    title: "برایان کرنیگان"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan"
    title: "Brian Kernighan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan"
    title: "Brian Kernighan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%91%D7%A8%D7%99%D7%90%D7%9F_%D7%A7%D7%A8%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%94%D7%90%D7%9F"
    title: "בריאן קרניהאן"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan"
    title: "Brian Kernighan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan"
    title: "Brian Kernighan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan"
    title: "Brian Kernighan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%96%E3%83%A9%E3%82%A4%E3%82%A2%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%82%AB%E3%83%BC%E3%83%8B%E3%83%8F%E3%83%B3"
    title: "ブライアン・カーニハン"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EB%B8%8C%EB%9D%BC%EC%9D%B4%EC%96%B8_%EC%BB%A4%EB%8B%88%ED%95%B8"
    title: "브라이언 커니핸"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ku.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan"
    title: "Brian Kernighan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://mg.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan"
    title: "Brian Kernighan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://mk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%91%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%98%D0%B0%D0%BD_%D0%9A%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%85%D0%B0%D0%BD"
    title: "Брајан Кернихан"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brian_Kernighan"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://fa.wikiquote.org/wiki/%D8%A8%D8%B1%D8%A7%DB%8C%D8%A7%D9%86_%DA%A9%D8%B1%D9%86%DB%8C%DA%AF%D8%A7%D9%86"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://gl.wikiquote.org/wiki/Brian_W._Kernighan"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://ru.wikiquote.org/wiki/%D0%91%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%B0%D0%BD_%D0%9A%D0%B5%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%B3%D0%B0%D0%BD"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Imported from discovery source: wikidata-category-fill