Dennis Ritchie (1941-2011)

An American Computer Scientist, Dennis Ritchie developed one of the most widely used programming languages – the C language. Born in Bronxville, New York, in 1941, he graduated in physics and applied mathematics from Harvard University. While working at Bell Laboratories, he met Ken Thompson, and together they built a multi-tasking, multi-user operating system, which we know as UNIX. They built it as an alternative to the batch processing systems that ran on only one type of hardware. Dennis Ritchie’s contributions to programming and computing spanned four decades, casting an unforgettable impact across the globe.The C language is still widely used today to write the software for digital services. And the UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems pretty much run the machinery from computers to smartphones. Ritchie died in the year 2011 but his ideas still live on, as an inspiration for the modern operating systems design, and for almost every new programming language out there.

John McCarthy (1927-2011)

Artificial Intelligence is the buzzword today. We hear talks about a future with robots, metaverse, etc. all the time. Numerous products and services have already incorporated AI into their system. But do you know who formulated this idea for the first time? It was none other than John McCarthy who coined the term in 1955. His main research involved the formalization of common sense knowledge. In 1958, McCarthy created the computer programming language LISP which was primarily used by the AI community. McCarthy completed a bachelor’s degree in mathematics (1948) from the California Institute of Technology and a doctorate from Princeton University later in 1951. Besides founding the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab (SAIL), he also developed ideas about the processing characteristics of trees in computing. McCarthy received the A.M Turing Award in 1971 for his contributions to the field, followed up by the Kyoto Prize (1988), and the National Medal of Science in 1990.

Bill Gates (1955-present)

Perhaps the most commonly known name on this thread, Bill Gates needs no introduction. This American computer programmer and entrepreneur co-founded Microsoft Corporation- the world’s largest personal computer software company. Gates wrote his first software program when he was just 13 years of age, and since then he has never looked back. In 1975, Gates along with his hometown fellow Paul Allen developed software for the first microcomputers, using BASIC. As the project came out successful, Gates dropped out of Harvard during his junior year and founded Microsoft with Allen. The microcomputer industry was fresh at that time and Gates built an early influence by licensing MS-DOS (Operating System) to IBM – the world’s biggest supplier of computers back then. By 1990, at the age of 35, Bill Gates had become the ultimate kingpin of the PC industry. Besides his programming acumen, Gates actively participates in philanthropy work and is a major influencer in today’s world.