Thompson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. When asked how he learned to program, Thompson stated, "I was … See more

Thompson was hired by Bell Labs in 1966. In the 1960s at Bell Labs, Thompson and Dennis Ritchie worked on the Multics operating system. While writing Multics, Thompson created the Bon programming language. … See more

In 1980, Thompson was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for "designing UNIX, an operating system whose efficiency, breadth, power, and style have guided a generation's exploitation of minicomput… See more

Ken Thompson is married and has a son. See more