Computer science professor Leonard Kleinrock received the National Medal of Science at the White House on Sept. 29.
Kleinrock and others were honored for their work in science and technology.
“Each of our honorees has extended the frontiers of knowledge, and in so doing they’ve inspired a wave of innovation. We’re an innovative society, and one of the main reasons why is we got very capable people who are willing to use their talents to push for new innovations,” said President Bush, in a press release from the White House.
According to the press release, Kleinrock received the National Medal of Science for his contributions to foundations of the internet in the mathematical theory of data networks and the basic principles of packet switching.
After receiving his doctorate in 1963, Kleinrock joined UCLA and received funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency to study how computers could communicate with one another, according to his Web site.
“Kleinrock developed a mathematical theory for the [Agency’s] network. It was called queuing theory,” said Mario Gerla, a professor of computer science. “Queuing theory, a mathematical theory, is the basis for the design and the optimization of the modern computer network.”
The data flowing through the network was sent in packets. Like messages being sent through envelopes in the post office, data was sent in packets to their proper destinations, Gerla said.
The creation of the internet evolved from the Agency’s research in networking.
The network was first managed by the military and the government. Eventually, it was taken over by the National Science Foundation. Around the early “˜80s, it turned into the Internet,” Gerla said. The Internet uses the foundations Kleinrock established through his early work at UCLA.
“The web is basically a distributed database,” Gerla said. “The internet uses technology called packet switching.”
The queuing models established by Kleinrock are the basis for the design of the network, said Gerla. Kleinrock’s work predicted delays in the transfer of data and helped design the network in a more efficient way.
The evolution of early Kleinrock’s research on computer networking has led to changes in communication.
In its early form, the agency was used as a research network for communication, Gerla said. “Now the internet is totally commercial and is run by large companies.”