{"id":"charles-simonyi","type":"person","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/charles-simonyi","language":"en","name":"Charles Simonyi","name_en":"Charles Simonyi","name_ne":null,"description":"Hungarian-American computer software executive (born 1948)","headline":"Hungarian-American computer software executive (born 1948)","also_known_as":[],"summary":"Charles Simonyi is a Hungarian-American software architect, businessman, and space tourist. He led the development of Microsoft's first application software, including early versions of Microsoft Office, and later co-founded Intentional Software, a company focused on his concept of intentional programming. A former researcher at Xerox PARC, he helped pioneer graphical user interfaces and introduced object-oriented programming and Hungarian notation to Microsoft. Simonyi flew to space twice as a private citizen, becoming the fifth space tourist and the only one to pay for two separate trips to the International Space Station. As of January 2025, his net worth was estimated at US$7.5 billion.","summary_more":[],"facts":[{"key":"born","label":"Born","values":[{"text":"10 September 1948","date":"1948-09-10"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q49819#P569"}},{"key":"birthplace","label":"Place of birth","values":[{"text":"Budapest","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1781"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q49819#P19"}},{"key":"citizenship","label":"Citizenship","values":[{"text":"Hungary","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q28"},{"text":"United States","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q30"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q49819#P27"}},{"key":"occupation","label":"Occupation","values":[{"text":"space tourist","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q20623701"},{"text":"computer scientist","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q82594"},{"text":"inventor","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q205375"},{"text":"programmer","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q5482740"},{"text":"engineer","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q81096"},{"text":"businessperson","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q43845"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q49819#P106"}},{"key":"education","label":"Education","values":[{"text":"Stanford University","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q41506"},{"text":"University of California, Berkeley","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q168756"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q49819#P69"}},{"key":"awards","label":"Awards","values":[{"text":"Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q458894","date":"2007"},{"text":"Great Immigrants Award","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q121359767","date":"2007"}],"source":{"label":"Wikidata","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q49819#P166"}}],"office":null,"sections":[],"cited":[],"cited_from":null,"videos":[],"last_reviewed":null,"organizations":[],"same_as":["https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Simonyi","https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q49819"],"faq":[{"q":"When was Charles Simonyi born?","a":"Charles Simonyi was born on 10 September 1948 in Budapest."},{"q":"Where did Charles Simonyi study?","a":"Charles Simonyi was educated at Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley."}],"related":[{"name":"Sándor Csányi","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/sandor-csanyi"},{"name":"Abdullah Al-Othaim","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/abdullah-al-othaim"},{"name":"Abigail Johnson","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/abigail-johnson"},{"name":"Adam Neumann","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/adam-neumann"},{"name":"Al Waleed bin Talal Al Saud","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/al-waleed-bin-talal-al-saud"},{"name":"Alberto Baillères","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/alberto-bailleres"},{"name":"Alex Karp","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/alex-karp"},{"name":"Alexei Mordashov","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/alexei-mordashov"},{"name":"Alexey Kuzmichev","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/alexey-kuzmichev"},{"name":"Alfonso Fanjul Jr.","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/alfonso-fanjul-jr"},{"name":"Alice Schwartz","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/alice-schwartz"},{"name":"Alice Walton","url":"https://diginpl.com/people/alice-walton"}],"places_in":[],"nearby":[],"image":{"url":"https://diginpl.com/kb-img/charles-simonyi-d56401fac5.jpg","width":500,"height":754,"license":"Public domain","credit":"NASA","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_simonyi.jpg"},"sources":[{"label":"Wikipedia (English): Charles Simonyi","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Simonyi","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"},{"label":"Wikidata item Q49819","url":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q49819","license":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"},{"label":"Image: Charles simonyi.jpg by NASA (Public domain)","url":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Charles_simonyi.jpg","license":null}],"license":{"text":"CC BY-SA 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/","facts":"https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/"},"attribution":"Text from the Wikipedia article Charles Simonyi, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page's text is shared under the same licence. Facts from Wikidata (CC0). Image: Charles simonyi.jpg — NASA, Public domain.","cite":"\"Charles Simonyi\". DigiNepal. Last updated 30 October 2026. https://diginpl.com/people/charles-simonyi. Retrieved 6 November 2026.","date_modified":"2026-10-30T06:22:56Z","facts_checked":"2026-11-05","alternates":{"html":"https://diginpl.com/people/charles-simonyi","en":"https://diginpl.com/people/charles-simonyi","ne":"https://diginpl.com/people/charles-simonyi?lang=ne"}}