Licklider, Joseph Carl Robnett; eminent psychologist and
psychoacoustician;
visionary computer scientist; wrote seminal paper, "Man-Computer
Symbiosis," in 1960 inspiring the transformation in computer
science that
led to networking; was recruited in 1962 to head ARPA's
behavioral sciences
division and lead ARPA into computer research; had been on
faculty at MIT
and Harvard, researcher at Lincoln Lab and BBN; became leader in
development of time-sharing and interactive computing systems;
later headed
MIT's Project MAC; died in 1990.
Roberts, Larry; engineer; director and principal architect
of the ARPA
network experiment; often referred to as "the father of the
ARPANET";
designed and wrote the network specification, drafted the Request
For
Proposals, and oversaw all work on the project from 1966 to 1973;
became
director of ARPA's Information Processing Techniques Office in
1969; had
conducted groundbreaking proof-of-principle TX-2 networking
experiment with
Wes Clark at Lincoln Lab in early 1966 before moving to ARPA;
wrote the
first electronic mail manager software (called RD) in 1973; left
ARPA in
1973 to direct TELENET.
Taylor, Bob; director of ARPA Information Processing
Techniques Office from
1966 to 1969; had the idea for building ARPA experimental
computer network
and obtained funding ($1 million) to start it; recruited Larry
Roberts from
Lincoln Lab to be head of the project; had studied
psychoacoustics and mathematics
at The University of Texas in the 1950s; was a
research
administrator at NASA before joining ARPA; later founded
the computer science lab at Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center; built Digital
Equipment Corporation Systems Research Center in Palo Alto.
Baran, Paul; co-inventor of packet-switching;
wrote papers on the
fundamentals of packet-switching and design of a distributed data
network
in the early 1960s while working for RAND Corporation.
Cerf, Vint; co-inventor of the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP); became the leading advocate for its worldwide adoption in the 1980s; had been a graduate student in computer science at UCLA in 1969; involved in the installation of the first IMP and early operation of the Network Measurement Center; member of the original Network Working Group (NWG).
Kahn, Bob; (pictured with Severo Ornstein); co-inventor (with Vint Cerf) of TCP/IP; mathematician who had
been a professor of electrical engineering (on leave at BBN) in 1967,
working on communications and information theory; joined BBN project team
to design and build the first IMP; organized the first public demonstration
of the ARPA Network in 1972; leader in development of packet-radio and
packet-satellite networks.
Clark, Wesley; researcher at Lincoln Labs in the 1950s; co-builder (with
Ken Olsen) of the TX-0 computer; worked on the TX-2, an early interactive
graphics machine; introduced J.C.R. Licklider to computing.
Frank, Howard; network topology expert; used computer-based analysis to
assist Larry Roberts in laying out a cost-effective network topology.
Heart, Frank; computer systems engineer, head of BBN's computer systems
division, and project manager of the team that designed and built the
Interface Message Processors for the ARPA Network in 1969; a graduate of
MIT, was a leader in the development of real-time computing systems at
Lincoln Lab in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Ornstein, Severo; hardware engineer; had worked with Wes Clark and Frank Heart at Lincoln Laboratory; was enlisted in 1968 to direct the IMP hardware design and implementation; key member of IMP Guys team at BBN; taught at Harvard; later worked at Xerox PARC and founded Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility.
Walden, Dave; programmer; member of the IMP Guys team at BBN; co-wrote the
operating code for the Interface Message Processor and was responsible for
IMP-to-host issues; worked with Frank Heart and Will Crowther at Lincoln
Lab on real-time computer systems in 1950s and early 1960s.
Cosell, Bernie; programmer and software debugger; member of the IMP Guys team at BBN in 1968.
Kleinrock, Len; queueing theorist and engineer; contributed to first theories about packet-switching; wrote thesis at MIT in 1959 on communications networks and problem of data flow, suggesting the notion of data blocks; worked on TX-2 at Lincoln Lab; ran the Network Measurement Center at UCLA; mentor to many graduate students active in early network development. Crocker, Steve; creator of "Request For Comments" (RFCs); coined the term and wrote first RFC on April 7, 1969; member of the original Network Working Group; graduate student at UCLA in 1969 involved in installation of the first IMP and early operation of the ARPA Network; Dave Crocker's brother.
Crowther, Will; programmer; involved in early development of real-time
computing systems at Lincoln Lab; was recruited to join IMP Guys at BBN in
1968; became the leader of BBN's effort to write IMP operating code and
network routing software; later wrote the first widely known computer game,
Adventure, based on his experience as a cave-explorer.
Barker, Ben; hardware engineer in charge of debugging
the IMPs; key member
of the IMP Guys team that built the first Interface Message
Processors
(IMPs) at Bolt Beranek and Newman (BBN) in 1969.
Davies, Donald Watts; co-inventor of packet-switching;
British computer
pioneer; coined the term "packet-switching" and in the mid-1960s
described
network concepts very similar to (but independent of knowledge
about) Paul
Baran's work at RAND; led a team in building Great Britain's
first computer
network.
Bhushan, Abhay; systems architect and Multics expert; served as chairman of the group that wrote the original File Transfer Protocol (FTP), released as RFC 354, in 1972.
Crocker, Dave; early developer of electronic mail; member of the MsgGroup; brother of Steve Crocker. Engelbart, Doug; computer scientist; directed the Network Information Center at SRI; inventor of the computer mouse; developer of NLS (online system) for creating digital libraries and storing and retrieving electronic documents. Farber, Dave; e-mail pioneer; founding member of the MsgGroup; key member of group that proposed CSNET. Herzfeld, Charles; director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency in 1967; granted Bob Taylor permission to spend $1 million on an experimental computer network that became the ARPANET. Lukasik, Stephen; physicist; director of ARPA from 1971 to 1975; proponent of network research; early user and advocate of electronic mail. Walker, Steve; founded the Message Services Group (MsgGroup) in 1975; was program manager at ARPA's Information Processing Techniques Office. Wessler, Barry; program manager at ARPA's Information Processing Techniques Office under Bob Taylor in 1969. MacKenzie, Kevin; first known user of emoticons in e-mail; member of the MsgGroup; sent message on April 12, 1979 with extra punctuation to denote "tongue-in-cheek" -).McKenzie, Alex; engineer; director of BBN's Network Control Center in the 1970s; early member of the MsgGroup; member of the original International Network Working Group (INWG), representing BBN.
McQuillan, John; programmer; Harvard graduate student, worked in BBN's Network Control Center from 1972 to 1974; revised IMP operating code and network software; conducted elaborate tests to improve network reliability.
Marill, Tom; psychologist; student of Licklider's involved in development of time-sharing systems; conducted networking experiment with Larry Roberts at Lincoln Lab in 1965, connecting Lincoln's TX-2 computer to SDC's Q-32 machine in Santa Monica; started Computer Corporation of America (CCA) that year.
Metcalfe, Bob; inventor of Ethernet; did pioneering work at Xerox PARC to develop technology for local area networks in early 1970s; involved in early ARPANET experiments as graduate student, enrolled at Harvard, but working at MIT.
Mockapetris, Paul; co-inventor of the Domain Name System (DNS) in 1983; worked at USC's Information Sciences Institute.
Partridge, Craig; co-inventor of the Domain Name System (DNS); programmer at BBN.
Postel, Jon; co-inventor of the Domain Name System (DNS); engineer; editor and archivist of Request For Comments (RFCs) from early 1970s to present; was a graduate student at UCLA involved in installing and testing the first IMP in 1969; member of the MsgGroup.
Reid, Brian; computer scientist; was a graduate student at Carnegie-Mellon in 1970s and an active member of the Message Group (MsgGroup) during early development of e-mail.
Rising, Hawley; electrical engineer; member of the IMP Guys team at BBN.
Scantlebury, Roger; British computer scientist; colleague of Davies at National Physical Laboratory; gave seminal paper on packet-switching network design in 1967 outlining work of Donald Davies' team in London; influenced Larry Roberts's design of the ARPA network.
Stefferud, Einar; moderator of the Message Group (MsgGroup) in the 1970s; was instrumental in creating a forum for discussion, and sustaining dialogue, over the ARPANET, among the earliest developers of electronic mail.
Thach, Truett; technician in BBN's Los Angeles office in 1969; helped Ben
Barker deliver, install and run check-out tests on the first IMP at UCLA.
Tomlinson, Ray; engineer and programmer; creator of the @ sign in e-mail addresses; sent the first e-mail message over a network link (simulated) between two computers at BBN in 1972; member of the MsgGroup; wrote early file-transfer protocol called CPYNET and mail programs called SNDMSG and READMAIL.
Vezza, Al; director of Project MAC at MIT; he and Bob Kahn, at Larry Roberts request, organized the first public demonstration of the ARPA Network at the ICCC conference in Washington, D.C., in 1972; member of the MsGroup; early developer of computer games.
Vittal, John; programmer; e-mail developer; wrote MSG mail program (most popular e-mail software on the network in 1975); inventor of the ANSWER command; influential member of the MsgGroup.
Wingfield, Mike; built the first host-to-IMP interface while a graduate student at UCLA in 1969.
Bolt Beranek and Newman; engineering consulting firm in Cambridge, Massachusetts, founded in 1948 by Richard Bolt, an electrical engineer, and Leo Baranek, architect and physicist (who later enlisted Robert Newman, architect); widely known for acoustical engineering; the firm branched into computers after hiring J.C.R. Licklider in 1957; was awarded the contract from ARPA in 1968 to build the Interface Message Processors and construct and run the ARPA Network.
