Robert Metcalfe | |
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.jpg) Metcalfe in 2004 | |
| Born | Robert Melancton Metcalfe (1946-04-07)April 7, 1946 (age 79) New York City, U.S. |
| Education | |
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| Spouse | Robyn |
| Children | 2 |
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| Scientific career | |
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| Thesis | Packet Communication (1973) |
| Doctoral advisor | Jeffrey P. Buzen |
Robert "Bob"Melancton Metcalfe (born April 7, 1946)[2][3] is an American engineer and entrepreneur who contributed to thedevelopment of the internet in the 1970s. He co-inventedEthernet, co-founded3Com, and formulatedMetcalfe's law, which describes the effect of a telecommunications network. Metcalfe has also made several predictions which failed to come to pass, including forecasting the demise of the internet during the 1990s.
Metcalfe has received various awards, including theIEEE Medal of Honor andNational Medal of Technology and Innovation for his work developing Ethernet technology. In 2023, he received theTuring Award, the highest distinction in computer science.[4] From 2011 to 2021, he was professor of innovation andentrepreneurship at theUniversity of Texas at Austin.[5]
Robert Metcalfe was born in 1946 inNew York, New York, to Ruth and Robert Metcalfe. He is of English, Irish, and Norwegian descent. His father was a test technician who specialized ingyroscopes. His mother was ahomemaker who later became a secretary atBay Shore High School.[6] Metcalfe graduated from that school in 1964.[7][6]
Metcalfe graduated from theMassachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969, receiving twoBachelor of Science degrees inelectrical engineering andindustrial management. He then attendedHarvard University and received aMaster of Science inapplied mathematics in 1970 and aPhD incomputer science in 1973.[3][8]
Metcalfe and his wife Robyn have two children.[9]
While pursuing his doctorate in computer science, Metcalfe took a job with MIT'sProject MAC after Harvard refused permission for him to connect the university to the then-newARPAnet. At MAC, Metcalfe was responsible for building some of the hardware that would link MIT'sminicomputers with ARPAnet. Metcalfe made ARPAnet the topic of hisdoctoral thesis, but Harvard initially rejected it.[10] Metcalfe decided how to improve his thesis while working atXerox PARC, where he read a paper about theALOHA network at theUniversity of Hawaii. He identified and fixed some of the bugs in the AlohaNet model, then added that work to his revised thesis. It was then accepted by Harvard, which granted his PhD.[11]
Metcalfe was working at PARC in 1973 when he andDavid Boggs inventedEthernet, initially as a standard for connecting computers over short distances. He later recalled that Ethernet was born on May 22, 1973, the day he circulated a memo titled "Alto Ethernet" which contained a rough schematic of how it would work. "That is the first time Ethernet appears as a word, as does the idea of usingcoax asether, where the participating stations, like in AlohaNet or ARPAnet, would inject their packets of data, they'd travel around at megabits per second, there would be collisions, and retransmissions, and back-off," Metcalfe explained. Boggs argued that another date was the birth of Ethernet: November 11, 1973, the first day the system actually functioned.[9]
In 1979, Metcalfe departed PARC and co-founded3Com,[12] a manufacturer ofcomputer networking equipment, in hisPalo Alto apartment.[9] 3Com became a leading provider of networking solutions, andEthernet became the dominant networking standard forlocal area networks (LANs).[13] In 1980 he received theACMGrace Hopper Award for his contributions to the development of local networks, specifically Ethernet. In 1990, the 3Com board of directors appointedÉric Benhamou asCEO instead of Metcalfe, who then left the company.[9] He spent 10 years as a publisher and pundit, writing aninternet column forInfoWorld. In 1996, he co-foundedPop!Tech, an executive technology conference.[14] He became aventure capitalist in 2001 and subsequently ageneral partner atPolaris Venture Partners.[3]
From 2011 to 2021, he was a professor atThe University of Texas at Austin'sCockrell School of Engineering, specializing in innovation initiatives.[15] Metcalfe was a keynote speaker at the 2016 Congress of Future Science and Technology Leaders and, in 2019, he presented theBernard Price Memorial Lecture in South Africa.[16] In June 2022, Metcalfe returned to MIT by joining theComputer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory as a research affiliate and computational engineer, working with the MITJulia Lab.[17]
In 1996, Metcalfe was awarded theIEEE Medal of Honor for "exemplary and sustained leadership in the development,standardization, andcommercialization of Ethernet."[18] The following year, he was elected as a member into theNational Academy of Engineering for the development of Ethernet.[19] He received theNational Medal of Technology in 2003 "for leadership in the invention, standardization, and commercialization of Ethernet".[20] In October 2003, he received theMarconi Award for "For inventing the Ethernet and promulgating his Law of network utility based on the square of the nodes".[21]
Metcalfe was inducted into theNational Inventors Hall of Fame in 2007, for his work with Ethernet technology.[22] In 2008, he received the Fellow Award from theComputer History Museum "for fundamental contributions to the invention, standardization, and commercialization of Ethernet."[23]
In March 2023, Metcalfe was awarded the 2022Association for Computing Machinery'sTuring Award for his contributions to the invention of Ethernet technology.[24][25]
In 1995, Metcalfe argued that the Internet would suffer a "catastrophic collapse" in the following year; he promised to eat his words if it did not. During his keynote speech at the sixthInternational World Wide Web Conference in 1997, he took a printed copy of his column that predicted the collapse, put it in a blender with some liquid and then consumed the pulpy mass.[26][27] He had suggested having his words printed on a very large cake, but the audience would not accept this form of "eating his words."[28]
Only one small hitch, which is, when I showed up in June of '72 to defend my PhD thesis at Harvard, it was rejected, and I was thrown out on my ass
| Awards and achievements | ||
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| Preceded by | IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal 1988 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award 1980 | Succeeded by |
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