Brian Kernighan
Canadian computer scientist who co-wrote The C Programming Language and co-created AWK
- Age
- 84 yrs
- Birthday in 57 days
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Brian Kernighan is a Canadian computer scientist who worked at Bell Labs on Unix. He co-wrote The C Programming Language with Dennis Ritchie, co-created the AWK language, is credited with naming Unix and popularised the “hello, world” program. He teaches at Princeton.
Biography
Education
Kernighan studied engineering physics at the University of Toronto and earned his PhD in electrical engineering at Princeton in 1969.
Bell Labs
At Bell Labs he worked with Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie. He is credited with suggesting the name “Unics”, which became Unix. He wrote tools such as eqn for typesetting maths and co-created AWK with Alfred Aho and Peter Weinberger.
Books
The C Programming Language (1978), with Ritchie, taught C to generations and introduced “hello, world”. His other books include The Elements of Programming Style and The Practice of Programming.
Princeton
Since 2000 Kernighan has been a professor at Princeton, teaching courses on computing for non-specialists. His memoir UNIX: A History and a Memoir appeared in 2019.
Timeline
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1942
Born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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1969
PhD from Princeton; joins Bell Labs
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1970
Suggests the name Unix
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1974
The Elements of Programming Style
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1977
AWK
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1978
The C Programming Language
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2000
Professor at Princeton
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2019
UNIX: A History and a Memoir
Notable works
-
1978
The C Programming Language Book
With Dennis Ritchie.
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1988
The AWK Programming Language Book
With Aho and Weinberger.
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2019
UNIX: A History and a Memoir Book
Did you know?
-
1
The “K” in AWK and in “K&R” stands for Kernighan.
-
2
He says he did not design C — Ritchie did.
-
3
“Hello, world” first appeared in his 1972 B tutorial.
Connections
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Frequently asked
Who is Brian Kernighan?
Brian Kernighan is a Canadian computer scientist who worked at Bell Labs on Unix. He co-wrote The C Programming Language with Dennis Ritchie, co-created the AWK language, is credited with naming Unix and popularised the “hello, world” program. He teaches at Princeton.
How old is Brian Kernighan?
Brian Kernighan is 84 years old, born on 1 January 1942 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Where is Brian Kernighan from?
Brian Kernighan was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
What is Brian Kernighan known for?
Brian Kernighan is best known for The C Programming Language (K&R); AWK; naming Unix; “hello, world”.
References
- Brian Kernighan — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Brian Kernighan — Goodreads author page. Goodreads. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Official website. www.cs.princeton.edu. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Brian Kernighan (Q92608) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Brian Kernighan”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. That text is available under the same licence. Learn more
External links
About this profile
- Researched by the TrackFame editorial team; reviewed by Sanjay Sokal under our editorial policy
- First published 4 November 2026
- Last updated
Cite this page
“Brian Kernighan.” TrackFame, last updated 5 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/brian-kernighan
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