Photo: Marcin Wichary from San Francisco, U.S.A. / CC BY 2.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
Alan Kay is credited as a computer scientist, programmer and jazz musician. Alan Kay was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, United States on May 17, 1940. The age as of 2026 is 86. Schooling on record includes Brooklyn Technical High School and University of Utah. Listed accolades include Turing Award (2003), Charles Stark Draper Prize (2004), Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology (2004) and 5 more.
My Take
Few people on this site have shaped my daily life as invisibly as Alan Kay. Born in 1940, schooled at Utah, and unleashed at Xerox PARC, he gave us the windowed desktop and pushed object-oriented programming into the mainstream. Practically every screen I touch carries his fingerprints. What I love most is that he isn't a narrow technologist: he's also a jazz guitarist, a reminder that great computing ideas often come from playful, cross-disciplinary minds. A Turing Award and Kyoto Prize barely capture it. He's a genuine visionary, and I hold him in deep regard.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Alan Kay
- Name (Japanese)
- アラン・ケイ
- Reading
- あらん・けい
- Born
- May 17, 1940 (age 86)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Taurus / Dragon
- Origin
- Springfield, Massachusetts, United States
- Occupation
- computer scientist / programmer / jazz musician / university teacher / jazz guitarist
2. Background
- High school
- Brooklyn Technical High School
- University
- University of Utah
Awards & achievements
- 2003 Turing Award
- 2004 Charles Stark Draper Prize
- 2004 Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology
- 1999 Computer History Museum Fellow
- 1987 ACM Software System Award
- 2008 ACM Fellow
- 2010 honorary doctorate of the University of Murcia
- 2008 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
3. Links
- Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan%20Kay
- Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%A2%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%82%B1%E3%82%A4
- Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q92742
4. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-21
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.
Frequently asked questions
When was Alan Kay born?
Born May 17, 1940 (age 86).
Where is Alan Kay from?
Alan Kay is from Springfield, Massachusetts, United States.
What does Alan Kay do?
Alan Kay works as computer scientist, programmer, jazz musician, university teacher, jazz guitarist.
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