Bjarne Stroustrup
Who was Bjarne Stroustrup?
Danish computer scientist who created the C++ programming language in 1985 while working at Bell Labs. He has been a professor at Texas A&M University and received numerous awards for his contributions to software development and programming language design.
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Bjarne Stroustrup (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Bjarne Stroustrup, born on December 30, 1950, in Aarhus, Denmark, started his education at Aarhus University and later moved to Churchill College, University of Cambridge, focusing on computer science and mathematics. This laid the groundwork for his future work in programming languages.
His most notable achievement in computer science is creating the C++ programming language in 1985 while at Bell Labs. This language built on C, adding features like classes, inheritance, and polymorphism, and became very popular for system programming, embedded systems, and high-performance applications. His development of C++ transformed how developers tackle complex programming.
Stroustrup has held key roles in academia and industry. He led the Large-scale Programming Research department at Bell Labs, researching distributed systems and programming methods. Later, he was a professor of computer science at Texas A&M University, where he continued his research and taught students. After his time in academia, he worked at Morgan Stanley for over a decade, focusing on financial software systems while also being a visiting professor at Columbia University. Since 2022, he has been a full professor at Columbia University.
Stroustrup's work in computer science has earned him many awards. He won the Grace Murray Hopper Award in 1993, the William Procter Prize in 2005, and the Rigmor and Carl Holst-Knudsen Award in 2010. He also received the Dahl–Nygaard Prize in 2015, the Faraday Medal in 2017, and both the Charles Stark Draper Prize and Computer Pioneer Award in 2018. He's recognized as an ACM Fellow, IEEE Fellow, and Computer History Museum Fellow, marking him as a key figure in modern computing.
Before Fame
Growing up in Denmark in the 1950s and 1960s, Stroustrup was around during the early days of computer development when programming was mostly an academic activity. His education at Aarhus University introduced him to math concepts and early computing theories, and his later studies at Cambridge exposed him to the latest research in computer science.
His journey to prominence started when he joined Bell Labs, a top research institution at the time. Bell Labs encouraged innovation and allowed researchers to tackle key problems in computing and telecommunications. In this setting, Stroustrup began working on extending the C programming language, seeing the need for a language that could manage the growing complexity of software systems while keeping efficiency and control.
Key Achievements
- Created the C++ programming language in 1985, one of the most widely used programming languages in the world
- Led the Large-scale Programming Research department at Bell Labs
- Authored 'The C++ Programming Language,' the definitive reference book for the language
- Received the Charles Stark Draper Prize in 2018, one of engineering's highest honors
- Served as professor at Texas A&M University and Columbia University while maintaining industry connections
Did You Know?
- 01.He originally called his programming language 'C with Classes' before renaming it C++ in 1983, with the '++' being a play on the increment operator in C
- 02.His surname 'Stroustrup' means 'Straw Village' in Danish, referring to a small Danish town
- 03.He wrote 'The C++ Programming Language' book, which became known as the definitive reference and has sold over 700,000 copies worldwide
- 04.He deliberately kept C++ compatible with C to ensure that existing C code could be used with the new language
- 05.Despite creating one of the world's most popular programming languages, he has expressed concerns about some ways C++ has been used and advocated for simpler, cleaner coding practices
Awards & Honors
| Award | Year | Details |
|---|---|---|
| William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement | 2005 | — |
| Grace Murray Hopper Award | 1993 | — |
| Dahl–Nygaard Prize | 2015 | — |
| Computer History Museum Fellow | — | — |
| Faraday Medal | 2017 | — |
| Charles Stark Draper Prize | 2018 | — |
| Computer Pioneer Award | 2018 | — |
| ACM Fellow | 1994 | — |
| IEEE Fellow | — | — |
| Rigmor and Carl Holst-Knudsen Award for Scientific Research | 2010 | — |
| John Scott Award | 2018 | — |