Richard P. Gabriel
Also known as Dick Gabriel
Richard Gabriel is a computer scientist whose work centers on Lisp, the language that John McCarthy founded. He and David Waltz tried to start an AI lab in Illinois, and he earned a Stanford PhD in 1981. The Gabriel Benchmarks, published in 1985 as Performance and Evaluation of Lisp Systems, became a standard way to benchmark Lisp implementations. In 1990 he published an essay that introduced the phrase worse is better, and in 2004 he won the ACM-AAAI Allen Newell Award. As of October 2026, he writes a poem every day.
Timeline
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1973–1981
An AI lab and a PhD
He and David Waltz try to start an AI lab at the University of Illinois, but the lab falls through. From 1975 to 1981 he serves as a teaching assistant to John McCarthy, the founder of Lisp, at Stanford, and he earns a PhD in computer science there in 1981.
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1984–1992
Founding Lucid, Incorporated
He founds Lucid, Incorporated in 1984 and leaves it in 1992. The company survives until 1994.
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1985
The Gabriel Benchmarks
His set of Lisp benchmarks, termed the Gabriel Benchmarks, is published in 1985 as Performance and Evaluation of Lisp Systems. These benchmarks become a standard way to benchmark Lisp implementations.
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1990
The essay Worse is Better
He publishes the essay Lisp: Good News, Bad News, How to Win Big in 1990. It introduces the phrase worse is better, a design approach that early Unix and C exemplify.
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1998
ACM Fellow and a poetry MFA
In 1998 he receives an ACM Fellows Award and earns an MFA in poetry from Warren Wilson College.
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2004
The Allen Newell Award
He wins the 2004 ACM-AAAI Allen Newell Award for innovations in programming languages and software design.
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2007
A Distinguished Engineer at IBM
He joins IBM Research as a Distinguished Engineer in 2007.
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As of October 2026
Writing a poem every day
He writes a poem every day and lives in California.
Sources and credits
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