Information | Details |
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Date of Birth | April 7, 1946 |
Nationality | American |
Residence | Cambridge, Massachusetts |
Education | MIT, Harvard |
Occupation | Inventor, Entrepreneur |
Bob Metcalfe is an American inventor, entrepreneur, and computer scientist best known for inventing Ethernet, the world's most widely used local area network (LAN) technology. He is also credited with co-founding 3Com, a computer networking company, and founding the venture capital firm Polaris Ventures.
Metcalfe was born in Brooklyn, New York, on April 7, 1946. He attended MIT, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1969 and a master's degree in 1970, both in electrical engineering. He then went on to Harvard, where he earned a PhD in 1973.
Metcalfe's most famous invention is Ethernet, which he developed in 1973 while working at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC). Ethernet is a LAN technology that allows computers to communicate with each other over a network. It is now the most widely used LAN technology in the world.
Metcalfe left Xerox in 1979 to co-found 3Com, a computer networking company. He served as 3Com's CEO from 1979 to 1990, and as chairman from 1990 to 1996.
In 1996, Metcalfe founded the venture capital firm Polaris Ventures. He has since invested in numerous startups, including Skype, Zipcar, and Twitter.
Metcalfe has received numerous awards and honors for his work, including the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2011 and the IEEE Medal of Honor in 2012. He is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.