# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/ken-thompson
# Generated: 2026-08-31T19:34:33.322Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/ken-thompson"
name: "Ken Thompson"
slug: "ken-thompson"
description: "Kenneth Lane Thompson 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 language, and was one of the creators and early developers of the Plan 9 operating system. Other notable contributions included his work on regular expressions and early computer text editors QED and ed, the definition of the UTF-8 encoding, and his work on computer chess that included the creation of endgame tablebases and the chess machine Belle."
tagline: "American programmer and computer scientist, co-creator of the Unix operating system (born 1943)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Ken_Thompson%2C_2019.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Developers"
  slug: "developers"
profileType:
  name: "Developer"
  slug: "developer"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q5482740"
birthDate: "1943-02-04"
livingStatus: "LIVING"
scores:
  popularity:           55.74
  momentum:             0
  historical:           23.92625333333334
  currentAttention:     0
  sourceConfidence:     65
  profileCompleteness:  75
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: 93
platforms:
  - platform:  "WEBSITE"
    url:       "http://cs.bell-labs.co/who/ken/"
sources:
  - url: "https://sk.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D9%83%D9%8A%D9%86_%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%85%D8%B3%D9%86"
    title: "كين تومسن"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://azb.wikipedia.org/wiki/%DA%A9%D9%86_%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%B3%D9%88%D9%86"
    title: "کن تامسون"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://az.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Tompson"
    title: "Ken Tompson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B5%D0%BD_%D0%A2%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%BF%D1%81%D0%B0%D0%BD"
    title: "Кен Томпсан"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D0%B5%D0%BD_%D0%A2%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%BF%D1%81%D1%8A%D0%BD"
    title: "Кен Томпсън"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bn.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A6%95%E0%A7%87%E0%A6%A8_%E0%A6%9F%E0%A6%AE%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%AA%E0%A6%B8%E0%A6%A8"
    title: "কেন টম্পসন"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson"
    title: "Ken Thompson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson"
    title: "Ken Thompson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson"
    title: "Ken Thompson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Thompson"
    title: "Kenneth Thompson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson"
    title: "Ken Thompson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://el.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%9A%CE%B5%CE%BD_%CE%A4%CF%8C%CE%BC%CF%83%CE%BF%CE%BD"
    title: "Κεν Τόμσον"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson"
    title: "Ken Thompson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eo.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson"
    title: "Ken Thompson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson"
    title: "Ken Thompson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson"
    title: "Ken Thompson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson"
    title: "Ken Thompson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%DA%A9%D9%86_%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%B3%D9%88%D9%86"
    title: "کن تامسون"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson"
    title: "Ken Thompson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson"
    title: "Ken Thompson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson"
    title: "Ken Thompson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://gl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson"
    title: "Ken Thompson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://he.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D7%A7%D7%9F_%D7%AA%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%A4%D7%A1%D7%95%D7%9F"
    title: "קן תומפסון"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%A4%95%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%A8_%E0%A4%A5%E0%A5%89%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AA%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%A8"
    title: "केन थॉम्पसन"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://hr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson"
    title: "Ken Thompson"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Ken_Thompson"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://fa.wikiquote.org/wiki/%DA%A9%D9%86_%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%B3%D9%88%D9%86"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1107006"
    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"

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