Linus Torvalds
Linus Torvalds Torvalds at LinuxCon Europe 2014 Born Linus Benedict Torvalds (1969-12-28) December 28, 1969 (age 45) Helsinki, Finland Residence Dunthorpe, Oregon, United States Nationality Finnish, American (naturalized in 2010) Alma mater University of Helsinki (M.S., 1988) Occupation Software engineer Employer Linux Foundation Known for Linux kernel, Git Spouse(s) Tove Torvalds (née Monni) Children 3 Parents Nils Torvalds (father) Anna Torvalds (mother) Relatives Ole Torvalds (grandfather) Website torvalds-family.blogspot.com (outdated) Linus Benedict Torvalds (/ˈlaɪnəsˈtɔrvɔːldz/; Swedish: [ˈliːn.ɵs ˈtuːr.valds] ( listen); born December 28, 1969) is a Finnish American software engineer, who was the principal force behind the development of the Linux kernel that became the most popular kernel for operating systems. He later became the chief architect of the Linux kernel and now acts as the project's coordinator. He also created the revision control system Git. He was honored, along with Shinya Yamanaka, with the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize by the Technology Academy Finland "in recognition of his creation of a new open source operating system for computers leading to the widely used Linux kernel". He is also the recipient of the 2014 IEEE Computer Society Computer Pioneer Award.