Joe Armstrong
British computer scientist who co-created the Erlang programming language
- Lived
- 68 yrs
- 1950 – 2019
- Works listed
- 2
- Programming language, Book
- Honours
- 0
- Awards & distinctions
- Profile views
- 2
- 0 followers
Joe Armstrong was a British computer scientist who co-created Erlang at Ericsson in 1986, a language designed for telephone switches that must never stop. Erlang’s approach to fault tolerance later powered WhatsApp and other messaging systems. He died in 2019.
Biography
Background
Armstrong studied physics at University College London and worked at the University of Edinburgh on robotics before moving to Sweden.
Erlang
At Ericsson’s Computer Science Laboratory from 1984, he worked with Robert Virding and Mike Williams to create Erlang. It uses many lightweight processes that share nothing and “let it crash”, restarting failed parts automatically.
Open source
Ericsson used Erlang in its AXD301 switch, which reached very high reliability. After Ericsson restricted its use in 1998, Erlang was released as open source. It later powered WhatsApp’s servers and RabbitMQ.
Teaching
Armstrong earned a PhD at Sweden’s Royal Institute of Technology in 2003 and wrote Programming Erlang. He died in April 2019.
Timeline
-
1950
Born in Bournemouth, England
-
1984
Joins Ericsson’s Computer Science Laboratory
-
1986
Erlang created
-
1998
Erlang becomes open source
-
2003
PhD from KTH
-
2007
Programming Erlang published
-
2019
Dies
-
2019
Died, aged 68
Notable works
-
1986
Erlang Programming language
With Virding and Williams.
-
2007
Programming Erlang Book
Did you know?
-
1
WhatsApp served hundreds of millions of users with a small team thanks partly to Erlang.
-
2
The Elixir language runs on Erlang’s virtual machine.
-
3
He made a humorous film, “Erlang: The Movie”.
Connections
Frequently asked
Who is Joe Armstrong?
Joe Armstrong was a British computer scientist who co-created Erlang at Ericsson in 1986, a language designed for telephone switches that must never stop. Erlang’s approach to fault tolerance later powered WhatsApp and other messaging systems. He died in 2019.
When did Joe Armstrong die?
Joe Armstrong died on 20 April 2019 at the age of 68.
Where is Joe Armstrong from?
Joe Armstrong was born in Bournemouth, England.
What is Joe Armstrong known for?
Joe Armstrong is best known for Co-creating Erlang at Ericsson (1986); fault-tolerant systems.
References
- Joe Armstrong (programmer) — Wikipedia. Wikipedia. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Official website. joearms.github.io. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
- Joe Armstrong (programmer) (Q1691321) — structured data. Wikidata. Retrieved 4 November 2026.
Includes material from the Wikipedia article “Joe Armstrong (programmer)”, 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
“Joe Armstrong.” TrackFame, last updated 5 November 2026. https://trackfame.com/person/joe-armstrong
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