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Butler Lampson
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Butler Lampson

Xerox PARC engineer behind the personal computer and many networking ideas

23 December 1943 United States Verified by our editors
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Age
82 yrs
Birthday in 47 days
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Butler Lampson is an American computer scientist who was a key designer of the Xerox Alto, the first modern personal computer, and the Bravo WYSIWYG editor at Xerox PARC. He later worked on security at Microsoft and received the Turing Award in 1992.

Biography

Early career

Lampson studied physics at Harvard and earned a PhD at Berkeley, where he worked on the Berkeley Timesharing System. He co-founded the Berkeley Computer Corporation, whose staff formed the core of Xerox PARC’s computer lab.

Xerox PARC

At PARC from 1971 he helped design the Alto (1973), with its bitmapped screen, mouse and windows, and the Bravo editor, the first WYSIWYG word processor, which later influenced Microsoft Word. He contributed to the laser printer, the Ethernet local network and distributed file systems.

Security and systems

Lampson wrote influential papers on computer security, access control and system design, including “Hints for Computer System Design”. He joined DEC and in 1995 Microsoft, where he became a technical fellow.

Honours

He received the Turing Award in 1992 and shared the 2004 Draper Prize with Alan Kay, Robert Taylor and Charles Thacker for the first networked personal computers.

Timeline

  1. 1943

    Born in Washington, D.C., United States

  2. 1967

    PhD from UC Berkeley

  3. 1971

    Joins Xerox PARC

  4. 1973

    Xerox Alto

  5. 1974

    Bravo editor

  6. 1983

    Hints for Computer System Design

  7. 1992

    Turing Award

  8. 2004

    Charles Stark Draper Prize

Notable works

  • 1973

    Xerox Alto Computer

    With Charles Thacker and others.

  • 1983

    Hints for Computer System Design Paper

Awards and honours

  • Turing Award

    1992

  • IEEE John von Neumann Medal

    2001

  • Charles Stark Draper Prize

    2004

Did you know?

  1. 1

    Charles Simonyi, who co-wrote Bravo with him, went on to create Microsoft Word.

  2. 2

    His design advice includes “Keep it simple” and “Plan to throw one away”.

  3. 3

    He has taught at MIT as an adjunct professor.

Connections

Related people

Also born on 23 December

Frequently asked

Who is Butler Lampson?

Butler Lampson is an American computer scientist who was a key designer of the Xerox Alto, the first modern personal computer, and the Bravo WYSIWYG editor at Xerox PARC. He later worked on security at Microsoft and received the Turing Award in 1992.

How old is Butler Lampson?

Butler Lampson is 82 years old, born on 23 December 1943 in Washington, D.C., United States.

Where is Butler Lampson from?

Butler Lampson was born in Washington, D.C., United States.

What is Butler Lampson known for?

Butler Lampson is best known for Xerox Alto; Bravo editor; Ethernet and laser printing work; Turing Award 1992.

What awards has Butler Lampson received?

Notable honours include Turing Award (1992), IEEE John von Neumann Medal (2001), Charles Stark Draper Prize (2004).

References

  1. Butler Lampson — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  2. Butler Lampson — Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  3. Official website. research.microsoft.com. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
  4. Butler Lampson (Q92644) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.

Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Butler Lampson”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. That text is available under the same licence. Learn more

External links

Official website Website Wikipedia
Filed under Personal computerTuring AwardXerox PARC Computer ScientistEngineer

About this profile

Cite this page

“Butler Lampson.” TrackFame, last updated 5 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/butler-lampson

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