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Rob Pike

b. 1956

Software engineer

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About Rob Pike

Born 1956. Rob Pike is a Canadian computer scientist, writer, engineer, programmer and software engineer, known for Golang, Plan 9 from Bell Labs and UTF-8.

Robert Pike (born 1956) is a Canadian programmer and author. He is best known for his work on the Go programming language while working at Google and the Plan 9 operating system while working at Bell Labs, where he was a member of the Unix team. He is the sole inventor named in a US patent for overlapping windows on a computer display.

With Brian Kernighan, he is the co-author of The Practice of Programming and The Unix Programming Environment.

Additional works

While at Bell Labs, Pike was also involved in the creation of the Blit graphical terminal for Unix, the Inferno operating system, and the Limbo programming language. and the vismon program for displaying faces of email authors.

Over the years, Pike has written many text editors; sam and acme are the most well known.

Pike started working at Google in 2002.

Pike appeared on Late Night with David Letterman, as a technical assistant to the comedy duo Penn & Teller.

Personal life

Pike is married to author and illustrator Renée French; the couple live both in the US and Australia.

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Important facts

Born
1956, Canada
Birth century
Nationality
Known for
Golang, Plan 9 from Bell Labs, UTF-8
Education
Erindale Secondary School, University of Toronto, California Institute of Technology
Employers
Google, Bell Labs
Also known as
Robert C. Pike

Family & relationships

Spouse
Renée French

People in Rob Pike's life

Named in this biography and alive at the same time

Contemporaries

People whose lives overlapped Rob Pike's

Frequently asked questions

Who is Rob Pike?

software engineer

When was Rob Pike born?

Rob Pike was born in 1956 in Canada.

What is Rob Pike's occupation?

Rob Pike is a computer scientist, writer, engineer, programmer and software engineer.

What is Rob Pike known for?

Rob Pike is known for Golang, Plan 9 from Bell Labs and UTF-8.

What nationality is Rob Pike?

Rob Pike is Canadian.

Sources & further reading

· Wikipedia: Rob Pike

· Wikidata: Q517764

· DBpedia: Rob Pike

Cite this page

APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Rob Pike. https://biography.guide/rob-pike/

MLA: "Rob Pike." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/rob-pike/.

Chicago: "Rob Pike." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/rob-pike/.

Data last updated: 2026-09-23 · Spot an error? Report a correction.

Portrait: Wikimedia Commons · author & licence

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