Alan Kay

Pioneer of GUI, Object-Oriented Programming, and modern computing paradigms.

Chronology: 1940-05-17 – Present

Origins & Early Life

Alan Curtis Kay (born May 17, 1940) is an American computer scientist who pioneered work on object-oriented programming and windowing graphical user interface (GUI) design. At Xerox PARC he led the design and development of the first modern windowed computer desktop interface. There he also led the development of the influential object-oriented programming language Smalltalk, both personally designing most of the early versions of the language and coining the term "object-oriented." He has been elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Royal Society of Arts. He received the Turing Award in 2003.

Pivotal Works & Achievements

== Early life and work == In an interview on education in America with the Davis Group Ltd., Kay said: I had the misfortune or the fortune to learn how to read fluently starting about the age of three, so I had read maybe 150 books by the time I hit first grade, and I already knew the teachers were lying to me. Originally from Springfield, Massachusetts, Kay's family relocated several times due to his father's career in physiology before ultimately settling in the New York metropolitan area. He attended Brooklyn Technical High...

Enduring Legacy & Impact

The historical impact and works continue to influence the modern world.

Source: Wikipedia