President George W. Bush announced Monday that UCLA Distinguished Professor of Computer Science Leonard Kleinrock (shown here) has been selected to receive the National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest scientific honor.
Kleinrock came up with the basic idea of packet switching as an MIT grad student and as a result is considered one of the creators of the Internet. His host computer at UCLA was Internet precursor ARPANET in 1969.
Kleinrock and seven other scientists will receive their medals at a White House ceremony on Sept. 29.Other honorees include Duke Dr. Robert Lefkowitz, for his work in biology, and Bert O’Malley, a molecular biologist from Baylor College of Medicine (speaking of which, read our recent profile of that college’s one-man IT shop)
As for Kleinrock, he is receiving the National Medal of Science for “fundamental contributions to the mathematical theory of modern data networks, for the functional specification of packet switching which is the foundation of Internet Technology, for mentoring generations of students and for leading the commercialization of technologies that have transformed the world,” accordign to the National Science Foundation’s citation.
