Robert “Bob” Metcalfe ’69, CSAIL research affiliate and MIT Corporation life member emeritus, was named a Benjamin Franklin Institute Laureate while receiving a 2024 Medal in Electrical Engineering last month. He earned the honor for co-inventing, developing, and commercializing Ethernet, the main channel for wired network communications globally.
Having recognized fellow CSAIL pioneer Barbara Liskov last year, the Franklin Institute Awards celebrates groundbreaking scientific contributions annually. Each recipient is championed as a visionary for providing solutions to international challenges in health, sustainability, and human connection.
Metcalfe’s landmark 1973 memo on a “broadcast communication network” laid the groundwork for his Ethernet successes later on. In the paper, he noted that PARC’s Altos, the first personal computers, could be connected within a single building. Paving the way for devices to interface as local area networks (LANs), Metcalfe also argued that standard coaxial cables could be replaced to complete those communications “over an ether.” The network he envisioned would be capable of adapting to WiFi, optical cables, and other incoming technology.
His vision came to life after he founded 3Com Corporation in 1979. The Silicon Valley startup blueprinted and produced network software, Ethernet transceivers, and Ethernet cards, connecting computers to each other and eventually to the internet. When IBM launched its first personal computer, 3Com introduced one of the first Ethernet interfaces compatible with it.
Ethernet enables seamless connectivity, improving communication and information sharing across computers in an estimated 7 billion ports today. Metcalfe’s quintessential systems and networking work culminated in a Turing Award last year, an honor often deemed the “Nobel Prize of computing.” The longtime MIT researcher previously received the IEEE Medal of Honor, the National Medal of Technology, the Marconi Award, and the Computer History Museum Fellow Award. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
Metcalfe is an MIT research affiliate in computational engineering and an emeritus professor of electrical and computer engineering at The University of Texas at Austin. He will receive his medal in Philadelphia at The Franklin Institute on Thursday, April 18.
