Seminar: The Internet and Beyond

Leonard Kleinrock (Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at UCLA)

Tuesday, June 11, 2013, 10:15 a.m. - 11:15 a.m., Room EV1.605

Abstract

Leonard Kleinrock presents the early history of the science and infrastructure that emerged as the ARPANET, as well as the trajectory of development it set for the broader construct that we now call the Internet. The author offers a personal and autobiographical element, comments on its current structure, and looks into its possible futures.

Bio

Leonard Kleinrock developed the mathematical theory of packet networks, the technology underpinning the Internet, while a graduate student at MIT. This was in the period 1960-1962, nearly a decade before the birth of the Internet which occurred in his laboratory when his Host computer at UCLA became the first node of the Internet in September 1969. He wrote the first paper and published the first book on the subject; he also directed the transmission of the first message ever to pass over the Internet. He was listed by the Los Angeles Times in 1999 as among the "50 People Who Most Influenced Business This Century." He was also listed as among the 33 most influential living Americans in the December 2006 Atlantic Monthly. Kleinrock's work was further recognized when he received the 2007 National Medal of Science, the highest honor for achievement in science bestowed by the President of the United States.