James Arthur Gosling was born on May 19, 1956 in
Calgary,
Alberta,
Canada. He received a BSc in
Computer Science from the
University of Calgary, Canada in 1977, and received his PhD in Computer Science from
Carnegie Mellon University in 1983. His thesis was titled "The Algebraic Manipulation of Constraints".
He is best known for designing the Java programming language and implementing its original compiler and virtual machine. He also gained recognition for his Unix port of Emacs (sometimes refered to as Gosmacs) and his work on the NeWS window system. His JavaOne biography also says he has built satellite data acquisition systems, a multiprocessor version of UNIX, several compilers, mail systems, window managers, a WYSIWYG text editor, and a constraint based drawing editor.
Gosling is currently a Vice President and Fellow at Sun Microsystems.