Lawrence G. Roberts (born 1937 in
ConnecticutConnecticut is a state in the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and New York to the west and south ....
) received the Draper Prize in 2001 "for the development of the
InternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
" along with
Leonard KleinrockLeonard Kleinrock is an engineer and computer scientist, and a computer science professor at UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, who made several important contributions to the field of computer networking, in particular to the theoretical side of computer networking...
,
Robert KahnRobert Elliot Kahn, is an engineer who, along with Vinton G. Cerf, invented the Transmission Control Protocol and the Internet Protocol , the technologies used to transmit information on the Internet.-Career:...
, and Vinton Cerf.
As a chief scientist at the Advanced Research Projects Agency, Roberts and his team created
packet switchingPacket switching is a digital network communications method that groups all transmitted data, irrespective of content, type, or structure into suitably-sized blocks, called packets. The network over which packets are transmitted is a shared network which routes each packet independently from all...
and the
ARPANetThe ARPANET created by ARPA of the United States Department of Defense during the Cold War, was the world's first operational packet switching network, and the predecessor of the global Internet....
, which was the predecessor to the modern Internet.
Lawrence (Larry) Roberts grew up in
Westport, ConnecticutWestport is a coastal town located on Long Island Sound in Fairfield County, Connecticut, 47 miles north of New York City in the United States...
as the son of Elliott and Elizabeth Roberts, who both had earned their doctorates in
chemistryChemistry is the science concerned with the composition, behavior, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions...
.
Lawrence G. Roberts (born 1937 in
ConnecticutConnecticut is a state in the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and New York to the west and south ....
) received the Draper Prize in 2001 "for the development of the
InternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standardized Internet Protocol Suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
" along with
Leonard KleinrockLeonard Kleinrock is an engineer and computer scientist, and a computer science professor at UCLA's Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, who made several important contributions to the field of computer networking, in particular to the theoretical side of computer networking...
,
Robert KahnRobert Elliot Kahn, is an engineer who, along with Vinton G. Cerf, invented the Transmission Control Protocol and the Internet Protocol , the technologies used to transmit information on the Internet.-Career:...
, and Vinton Cerf.
As a chief scientist at the Advanced Research Projects Agency, Roberts and his team created
packet switchingPacket switching is a digital network communications method that groups all transmitted data, irrespective of content, type, or structure into suitably-sized blocks, called packets. The network over which packets are transmitted is a shared network which routes each packet independently from all...
and the
ARPANetThe ARPANET created by ARPA of the United States Department of Defense during the Cold War, was the world's first operational packet switching network, and the predecessor of the global Internet....
, which was the predecessor to the modern Internet.
Early life and education
Lawrence (Larry) Roberts grew up in
Westport, ConnecticutWestport is a coastal town located on Long Island Sound in Fairfield County, Connecticut, 47 miles north of New York City in the United States...
as the son of Elliott and Elizabeth Roberts, who both had earned their doctorates in
chemistryChemistry is the science concerned with the composition, behavior, structure, and properties of matter, as well as the changes it undergoes during chemical reactions...
. During his youth, he built a
Tesla coilA Tesla coil is a type of resonant transformer circuit invented by Nikola Tesla around 1891. It is used to produce high voltage, low current, high frequency alternating current electricity. A Tesla coil consists of two, or sometimes three, coupled resonant electric circuits, but is difficult to...
, assembled a television , and designed a telephone network built from transistors for his parent's
Girl ScoutThe Girl Scouts of the United States of America is a youth organization for girls in the United States and American girls living abroad...
camp.
Roberts attended the
Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological research...
, where he received his
bachelor's degreeA bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for four years, but can range from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
(1959),
master's degreeA master's degree is an academic degree granted to individuals who have undergone study demonstrating a mastery or high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice...
(1960), and
Ph.D.Ph.D. or PHD may stand for:* Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group* Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip* PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* Parisada Hindu Dharma, an Indonesian organization...
(1963), all in
electrical engineeringElectrical engineering, sometimes referred to as electrical and electronic engineering, is a field of engineering that deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after...
.
His son, Pasha Roberts, continued leading edge technology research and won The
Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological research...
$50K Business Startup contest. Pasha's subsequent company,
Webline CommunicationsWebline Communications is a contact management company based in the United States. It was acquired by Cisco Systems on September 22, 1999....
was successfully sold to Cisco Systems in 1999.
Career
After receiving his PhD, Roberts continued to work at the MIT
Lincoln LaboratoryMIT Lincoln Laboratory, also known as Lincoln Lab, is a federally funded research and development center managed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and primarily funded by the United States Department of Defense....
. Having read the seminal 1961 paper of the "Intergalactic Computer Network" by
J. C. R. LickliderJoseph Carl Robnett Licklider , known simply as J.C.R. or "Lick" was an American computer scientist, considered one of the most important figures in computer science and general computing history. - Biography :...
, Roberts developed the first computer-to-computer network that could communicate via data packets . In 1966, he became the chief scientist in the ARPA Information Processing Techniques Office, where he led the development of the ARPANet.
In 1973, Roberts left ARPA to commercialize the nascent technology in the form of
TelenetTelenet was a packet switched network which went into service in 1974. It was the first publicly available commercial packet-switched network service....
, the first packet switch utility company, and served as its CEO from 1973 to 1980. He was CEO of NetExpress, an
ATMAsynchronous transfer mode is an electronic digital data transmission technology. ATM is implemented as a network protocol and was first developed in the mid 1980s. The goal was to design a single networking strategy that could transport real-time video conference and audio as well as image...
equipment company, from 1983 to 1993. Roberts was president of ATM Systems from 1993 to 1998. He was chairman and CTO of Caspian Networks, but left in early 2004; Caspian ceased operation in late 2006.
Roberts is the founder and current chairman of Anagran Inc. Anagran continues work in the same area as Caspian: IP flow management with improved
Quality of ServiceIn the field of computer networking and other packet-switched telecommunication networks, the traffic engineering term quality of service refers to resource reservation control mechanisms rather than the achieved service quality...
for the Internet.
Awards and honors
- IEEE Harry M. Goode Memorial Award (1976 ), "In recognition of his contributions to the architectural design of computer-communication systems, his leadership in creating a fertile research environment leading to advances in computer and satellite communications techniques, his role in the establishment of standard international communication protocols and procedures, and his accomplishments in development and demonstration of packet switching technology and the ensuing networks which grew out of this work."
- L.M. Ericsson
Lars Magnus Ericsson was a Swedish inventor, entrepreneur and founder of telephone equipment manufacturer Ericsson ....
Prize (1982) in SwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe...
- Member, National Academy of Engineering (1978)
- Computer Design Hall of Fame Award (1982)
- IEEE W. Wallace McDowell Award (1990), "For architecting packet switching technology and bringing it into practical use by means of the ARPA network."
- Association for Computing Machinery
The Association for Computing Machinery, or ACM, is a learned society for computing. It was founded in 1947 as the world's first scientific and educational computing society. Its membership is more than 92,000 as of 2009...
SIGCOMM AwardThe SIGCOMM Award recognizes lifetime contribution to the field of communication networks.The award is presented in the annual SIGCOMM Technical Conference.The awardees are:* 2009 Jon Crowcroft* 2008 Don Towsley* 2007 Sally Floyd* 2006 Domenico Ferrari...
(1998), for "visionary contributions and advanced technology development of computer communication networks".
- IEEE Internet Award
IEEE Internet Award was established by the IEEE Board of Directors in June 1999. It may be presented annually for exceptional contributions to the advancement of Internet technology for network architecture, mobility and/or end-use applications.Recipients:...
(2000) For "early, preeminent contributions in conceiving, analyzing and demonstrating packet-switching networks, the foundation technology of the Internet."
- International Engineering Consortium Fellow Award (2001)
- National Academy of Engineering
The United States National Academy of Engineering , a private, non-profit institution that was founded in 1964 under the same congressional act that led to the founding of the National Academy of Sciences...
Charles Stark Draper PrizeThe National Academy of Engineering awards annually the Charles Stark Draper Prize, which is given for the advancement of engineering and the education of the public about engineering. It is one of three prizes that constitute the "Nobel Prizes of Engineering" - the others being the Academy's...
(2001), "for the development of the Internet"
- Principe de Asturias Award
The Prince of Asturias Awards is a series of annual prizes given in Spain by the Fundación Príncipe de Asturias to individuals, entities and/or organizations from around the world who make notable achievements in the sciences, humanities, or public affairs...
2002 in SpainSpain , officially the Kingdom of Spain , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula.
[The Spanish constitution does not establish any official denomination of the country, even though España , Estado español and Nación española are used interchangeably...]
"for designing and implementing a system that is changing the world by providing previously unthought of opportunities for social and scientific progress."
- NEC
, a Japanese multinational IT company, has its headquarters in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC, part of the Sumitomo Group, provides information technology and network solutions to business enterprises, communications services providers and government....
C&C Award (2005) in Japanis an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
"For Contributions to Establishing the Foundation of Today's Internet Technology through...the Design and Development of ARPANET and Other Early Computer Networks that were Part of the Initial Internet."
External links
- Oral history interview with Lawrence G. Roberts. Charles Babbage Institute
The Charles Babbage Institute is a research center at the University of Minnesota specializing in the history of information technology, particularly the history since 1935 of digital computing, programming/software, and computer networking.-Activities:...
, University of Minnesota. Roberts directed the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) during 1968-1973 and was later chief operating officer of Network Express. The interview focuses on IPTO and the Advanced Research Projects Agency. Much of Roberts' description of the work of ARPA and IPTO is set within the context of his interactions with Congress on budget matters. Topics include J. C. R. Licklider, Ivan Sutherland, Steve Lukasik, Wesley Clark, ARPA and IPTO support of research in computer science, computer networks, and artificial intelligence, the ARPANET, the involvement of universities with ARPA and IPTO.
- Oral history interview with Robert E. Kahn. Charles Babbage Institute
The Charles Babbage Institute is a research center at the University of Minnesota specializing in the history of information technology, particularly the history since 1935 of digital computing, programming/software, and computer networking.-Activities:...
, University of Minnesota. Kahn discusses the work of various DARPA and IPTO personnel including J. C. R. Licklider, Vinton Cerf, and Larry Roberts