Chip Morningstar - Early Career

Early Career

Chip Morningstar started his career as a research assistant at the University of Michigan and as an independent computer consultant. His original major was Aerospace at the University of Michigan. After his summer job in 1977 where he was surrounded by up to date computer technology, he changed his major to computer engineering. In 1979 he took a job at the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan (ERIM) as a research engineer. While at ERIM he developed image processing software, languages and tools for the Cytocomputer. Morningstar also co-invented the Leonard-Morningstar image filter algorithm.

From 1984-1992, Chip Morningstar worked at Lucasfilm, Ltd. as a designer and programmer, as well as cyberspace consultant. While at Lucasfilm, Morningstar held the position of Project Leader for Habitat, an early graphical online multiplayer environment. Morningstar oversaw all development staff, as well as writing substantial portions of the server system himself. The game Habitat is where the term “avatar” was originated from in terms of gaming. The word used to be related to a Buddhist ritual. Morningstar redefined this word and gave “avatar” its modern meaning today.


Chip Morningstar continued to work for various companies, such as American Information Exchange Corporation,Electric Communities, and Avistar Communications. In 2005, he took a job working for Yahoo!. At Yahoo! Morningstar was the principal architect and development team leader for the Yahoo! Core Identity Platform (CoreID). CoreID is a system that provides a framework for the storage and retrieval for all users of Yahoo!. He was also a team leader of the Yahoo! Reputation Platform, as well as a member of Yahoo!'s Social Media advisory program.

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