Robert Elliot Kahn was born on December 23, 1938. He is an American electrical engineer who, with Vint Cerf, created the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP). These are the basic rules that help the Internet work.

In 2004, Kahn and Vint Cerf received the Turing Award for their work on TCP/IP.

Early life and education

Robert Elliot Kahn was born in December 1938 in New York City. His parents were Beatrice Pauline (née Tashker) and Lawrence Kahn, who were part of an Ashkenazi Jewish family. He is related to futurist Herman Kahn through his father. In 1960, Kahn earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the City College of New York. He later attended Princeton University, where he received a Master of Arts degree in 1962 and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1964, both in electrical engineering. At Princeton, his advisor was Bede Liu, and he completed a doctoral dissertation titled "Some problems in the sampling and modulation of signals."

Career

He first worked at Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., where he was the main designer of the ARPANET. In the fall of 1972, he showed the ARPANET by connecting 20 computers at the International Conference on Computer Communications (ICCC), an important event that made people realize packet switching was a real technology.

In 1972, he joined the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) within DARPA. He then helped create the TCP/IP protocols to connect different computer networks. After becoming director of IPTO, he started the United States government's billion-dollar Strategic Computing Initiative, the largest computer research and development program ever done by the U.S. federal government.

After thirteen years at DARPA, he left to start the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI) in 1986. As of 2022, he still serves as its chairman, CEO, and president.

The Internet

While working on the SATNET satellite packet network project, he developed the first ideas for what later became the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). TCP was meant to replace an earlier network protocol called NCP, which was used in the ARPANET. TCP was important in creating the foundation for internetworking, which allows computers and networks worldwide to communicate with each other, no matter what kind of hardware or software they use. To achieve this, TCP was designed with these features:

• Small parts of the network could communicate through a special computer that only passed data packets (called a gateway at first, and now called a router).
• No single part of the network could control the whole system or cause it to fail completely.
• Each piece of information sent through the network was given a number to ensure it was received in the correct order and to identify if any data was lost.
• A computer sending information would know it was received successfully when the receiving computer sent back a special message called an acknowledgment (ACK) for that data.
• If data was lost during transmission, the sending computer would resend it after a timer detected the loss, as the expected acknowledgment was not received.
• Each piece of information included a code called a checksum, created by the sender and checked by the receiver to ensure the data was not damaged during travel.

Vint Cerf joined the project in the spring of 1973, and together they completed an early version of TCP. Later, the protocol was divided into two parts: TCP handled communication between computers, while the Internet Protocol (IP) managed communication between different networks. These two together are often called TCP/IP and form the basis of the modern Internet.

In 1992, he co-founded the Internet Society with Vint Cerf to lead efforts in Internet-related standards, education, and policy.

Awards

In 1981, Bob Kahn was named an IEEE Fellow for his work on packet switching in mobile radio communications. In 1987, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for research on computer networks and packet switching, as well as for leadership in computer and communications research. In 1990, he became a Founding Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.

In 1993, he received the SIGCOMM Award for "visionary technical contributions and leadership in developing information systems technology." In 2004, he shared the Turing Award with Vint Cerf for "pioneering work on internetworking, including the Internet's basic communications protocols," and for leadership in networking.

He has received many awards, including the AFIPS Harry Goode Memorial Award, the Marconi Award, the ACM SIGCOMM Award, the President's Award from ACM, the IEEE Koji Kobayashi Computer and Communications Award, the IEEE Alexander Graham Bell Medal, the IEEE Third Millennium Medal, the ACM Software Systems Award, the Computerworld/Smithsonian Award, the ASIS Special Award, and the Public Service Award from the Computing Research Board. He has also received the Secretary of Defense Civilian Service Award twice.

In 1998, he was given an honorary degree by the University of Pavia. In 1999, he received the Stibitz-Wilson Award from the American Computer & Robotics Museum for his role in developing the original ARPANET NCP Protocol and co-inventing the Internet's TCP/IP Protocol.

He has received the 1997 National Medal of Technology, the 2001 Charles Stark Draper Prize from the National Academy of Engineering, the 2002 Prince of Asturias Award, and the 2004 A. M. Turing Award from the Association for Computing Machinery. In 2003, he received the Digital ID World award for his contribution to the digital identity industry.

In 2005, he was awarded the Townsend Harris Medal from the Alumni Association of the City College of New York, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the C & C Prize in Tokyo, Japan. In 2006, he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and named a Fellow of the Computer History Museum for "pioneering technical contributions to internetworking and leadership in applying networks to scientific research."

In 2008, he received the Japan Prize for his work in "Information Communication Theory and Technology" (shared with Vinton Cerf). In 2001, he was inducted as a Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery. In 2006, Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf were named Honorary Fellows of the Society for Technical Communication (STC). In 2010, they were awarded the Harold Pender Award, the highest honor from the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

He has served on the board of directors for Qualcomm. In 2012, he was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame by the Internet Society. In 2013, he was one of five Internet and Web pioneers awarded the inaugural Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering. In 2024, he received the IEEE Medal of Honor for "pioneering technical and leadership contributions in packet communication technologies and foundations of the Internet."

Honorary degrees

Kahn has been given honorary degrees from Princeton University, University of Pavia, ETH Zurich, University of Maryland, George Mason University, the University of Central Florida, and the University of Pisa, as well as an honorary fellowship from University College, London.

In 2012, he was also given the title of honorary doctor by Saint Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics.