ACM has named Bob Metcalfe as recipient of the 2022 ACM A.M. Turing Award for the invention, standardisation, and commercialisation of Ethernet.
Metcalfe is an Emeritus Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at The University of Texas, Austin and a Research Affiliate in Computational Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Computer Science & Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).
The ACM A.M. Turing Award, often referred to as the “Nobel Prize of Computing,” carries a $1 million prize, with financial support provided by Google, Inc. It is named for Alan M. Turing, the British mathematician who articulated the mathematical foundation and limits of computing.
“Ethernet has been the dominant way of connecting computers to other devices, to each other, and to the Internet,” explained ACM President, Yannis Ioannidis. “Metcalfe’s original design ideas have enabled the bandwidth of Ethernet to grow geometrically. It is rare to see a technology scale from its origins to today’s multigigabit-per-second capacity. Even with the advent of WiFi, Ethernet remains the staple mode of data communication, especially when security and reliability are prioritised. It is especially fitting to recognise such an impactful invention during its 50th anniversary year.”