Linus Torvalds — SPARQNOW

At-a-Glance

Recipient of the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize for the creation of the Linux kernel.
Recipient of the 2014 IEEE Computer Society Computer Pioneer Award and the 2018 IEEE Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award.
Serves as a Fellow at the Linux Foundation since 2003.
Creator and lead developer of the Linux kernel, first publicly released in late 1991.
Original architect and author of the Git source control management system.
Holds an MSc in Computer Science from the University of Helsinki.

Biography

Linus Benedict Torvalds (born 28 December 1969) is a Finnish and American software engineer. He is widely recognized as the creator and lead developer of the Linux kernel and the distributed version control system Git. Since 2003, he has served as a Fellow at the Linux Foundation, where he continues to be an active maintainer of the Linux kernel.

Torvalds' interest in computers began at age 11 in 1981 with a VIC-20, leading him to programming in BASIC and machine code.