Andrew Tanenbaum is best known for his work on computer architecture, operating systems, and networks.

Andrew Stuart Tanenbaum was born in New York in 1941 and grew up in White Plains, New York, where he attended the local high school. His undergraduate degree was obtained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1965 and his Ph.D. came from the University of California at Berkeley in 1971. Both degrees were in computer science. During his undergraduate period Tanenbaum spent a summer working at IBM, and this experience put him off working in industry for the rest of his life. For his postdoctoral studies Tanenbaum went to Amsterdam, where he has remained ever since. His postdoctoral studies were carried out jointly at Mathematisch Centrum and Vrije Universiteit between 1971 and 1973. In 1973 he took a permanent position at Vrije Universiteit where he rose to the position of professor of computer science in the...