Jack Dennis | |
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Born | Elizabeth, New Jersey, U.S.[1] | October 13, 1931
Education | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Known for | Multics |
Awards | IEEE John von Neumann Medal, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group on Operating Systems (SIGOPS) Hall of Fame, Member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Computer science |
Institutions | MIT |
Doctoral advisor | Dean Norman Arden |
Doctoral students | Peter J. Denning Randal Bryant Guang Gao |
Jack Bonnell Dennis (born October 13, 1931)[1] is an American computer scientist and Emeritus Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The work of Dennis in computer systems and computer languages is recognized to have played a key role in hacker culture. As a Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty member he sponsored easier access to computer facilities at MIT during the early development of the subculture.[2][3] Much of what would later become Unix came from his early collaboration with Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson. This collaborative and open philosophy lives on today.
Dennis was also a member of the historic Tech Model Railroad Club, which incubated much of the early slang and traditions of hacking.