Leonard Kleinrock

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Leonard Kleinrock is known as the inventor of the Internet, having created the basic principles of packet switching - the technology underpinning the Internet - while a graduate student at MIT. This was a full decade before the birth of the Internet, which occurred when his host computer at UCLA became the first node of the Internet in September 1969. Kleinrock is the author of the first paper and first book on the subject; he also directed the transmission of the first message ever to pass over the Internet.

Kleinrock received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1963 and has served as professor of computer science at UCLA since then. He received his B.E.E. degree from CCNY in 1957 as well as an honorary doctor of science from CCNY in 1997, and an honorary doctor of science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2000. He was first president and co-founder of Linkabit. He is also founder and chairman of both Nomadix, a high-tech firm located in Southern California, and TTI/Vanguard, an advanced technology forum organization based in Santa Monica. He has published more than 225 papers and authored six books on a wide array of subjects including packet switching networks, packet radio networks, local area networks, broadband networks and gigabit networks. Additionally, Kleinrock has recently launched the field of nomadic computing, the emerging technology to support users as soon as they leave their desktop environments. Nomadic computing may well be the next major wave of the Internet.

Not only is Kleinrock world-renowned for his research in computer network modeling and analysis, he expertly blended his scholarly emphasis into the computer science department. In 1971, he established the field in UCLA’s School of Engineering and Applied Science and originated more than half the computer modeling courses. As a result, the Department of Computer Science was rated among the finest in the country. Undergraduate and graduate students uniformly praised Professor Kleinrock’s ability to teach a subject that is most difficult and highly mathematical in a manner they find both comprehensive and enjoyable. And in 1986, he was awarded UCLA’s Distinguished Teaching Award.

As vividly recounted by a former student, “He had the knack of taking a subject of little interest and great complexity and turning it into the most exciting and simple learning experience … His explanations would create a sense of discovery. It was as though we were exploring an unknown land together; then, all of the sudden, we discovered the result, and it all looked so simple.”

Kleinrock’s interest in electronics began while he read a comic book at the age of six. The centerfold described how to build a crystal radio. He managed to collect parts, make it work, and was amazed to hear music from this simple device. Thus, an engineer was born, and the rest is history.