Guido van Rossum

Guido van Rossum
Van Rossum at OSCON 2006
Born	31 January 1956 (age 56) Netherlands
Nationality	Dutch
Alma mater	University of Amsterdam
Occupation	Computer programmer, author
Employer	Google
Known for	Python programming language
Spouse(s)	Kim Knapp
Children	Orlijn Michiel Knapp-van Rossum[1]
Awards	Award for the Advancement of Free Software (2001)
Website
python.org/~guido/ neopythonic.blogspot.com/

Guido van Rossum (born 31 January^[2] 1956^{[citation needed]}) is a Dutch computer programmer who is best known as the author of the Python programming language. In the Python community, Van Rossum is known as a "Benevolent Dictator For Life" (BDFL), meaning that he continues to oversee the Python development process, making decisions where necessary.^[3] He is currently employed by Google, where he spends half his time developing the Python language.

Biography

Van Rossum was born and grew up in the Netherlands, where he received a masters degree in mathematics and computer science from the University of Amsterdam in 1982. He later worked for various research institutes, including the Dutch Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), Amsterdam, the United States National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, Maryland, and the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), Reston, Virginia.
In December 2005, Van Rossum was hired by Google.^[4] He wrote a web-based code-review tool for Google in Python.^[5][6]