Martin Richards (computer scientist) facts for kids

Martin Richards is a British computer scientist. He was born on July 21, 1940. He is famous for creating a special computer language called BCPL. This language was very important. It helped make computer programs work on different types of computers. BCPL also led to other famous languages. One of these is the C programming language. Many computer programs today are built using C.

His Journey in Learning

Martin Richards loved mathematics when he was young. He studied it at the University of Cambridge. After that, he learned even more about computers. He earned a special degree called a Diploma in Computer Science.

He then worked on his PhD. A PhD is a very high university degree. His research was about how to design and build computer languages. He taught at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory. He was a senior lecturer there until he retired in 2007.

Big Ideas and Inventions

Besides creating BCPL, Martin Richards also helped develop TRIPOS. TRIPOS was an operating system. An operating system is like the main program that runs a computer. Think of it as the brain of the computer. TRIPOS was special because it could work on many different kinds of computers. This made it very useful.

In 2003, Martin Richards received a big award. It was the IEEE Computer Society's Computer Pioneer Award. He got this award for his amazing work. His BCPL language helped make computer software much easier to use on different machines.

Martin Richards is also a fellow at St John's College. This is one of the colleges at the University of Cambridge.