UCLA Engineering: UCLA Engineer Fall 2003

Computer Science Professor Leonard Kleinrock Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

By Christopher Sutton

Leonard Kleinrock, professor of computer science in the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Kleinrock is one of two members of the School's faculty elected to the Academy. Chancellor Albert Carnesale, who is also a member of the mechanical and aerospace engineering department, was elected to the Academy in 1996.

While a graduate student at MIT, Kleinrock created the basic principles of packet switching, the technology underpinning the Internet and still used today. Kleinrock's host computer at UCLA became the first node of the Internet in fall 1969, when he directed the transmission of the first message ever to pass over the Internet. Kleinrock is also a pioneer in the emerging field of nomadic computing, the technology that provides access to and use of Internet services anywhere at anytime.

"Professor Kleinrock is truly deserving of this honor," said Vijay K. Dhir, dean of the School. "His election to the Academy is a testament to his strong record of personal achievement and his extraordinary contributions to the field of computer science."

The 2003 Academy class includes four college presidents, three Nobel Prize winners, and four Pulitzer Prize winners. Three other scholars from UCLA were elected this year: geography professor William A.V. Clark; Shelley E. Taylor, professor of social psychology; and economist Kenneth L. Sokoloff, bringing the total number of members from UCLA to 82.

Kleinrock received his PhD from MIT in 1963 and has served as a professor of computer science at the UCLA since then. He was president and co-founder of Linkabit, and is founder and chairman of Nomadix, Inc., a high-tech firm located in Southern California. He is also founder and chairman of TTI/Vanguard, an advanced technology forum organization based in Santa Monica, California.

Kleinrock is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, an IEEE fellow, an ACM fellow and a founding member of the Computer Science and Telecommunications Board of the National Research Council. He is the recipient of the CCNY Townsend Harris Medal, the CCNY Electrical Engineering Award, the Marconi Award, the L.M. Ericsson Prize, the NAE Charles Stark Draper Prize, the Okawa Prize, the IEEE Internet Millennium Award, the UCLA Outstanding Teacher Award, the Lanchester Prize, the ACM SIGCOMM Award, the Sigma Xi Monie Ferst Award, the INFORMS President's Award and the IEEE Harry Goode Award.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences was founded in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock, and other scholar-patriots "to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people."

For additional information on Kleinrock's research, please visit http://www.lk.cs.ucla.edu.