Robert Metcalfe is best known for his development of Ethernet and LAN technology as well as for founding the 3Com company.

Robert Metcalfe was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1946, although he grew up on Long Island. By the age of 10 he knew he wanted to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to study electrical engineering. He achieved this aim and graduated from MIT with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and business management in 1969. Metcalfe then moved to Harvard University where he received a master's degree in applied mathematics. He remained at Harvard, initially failing his Ph.D. in computer science in 1972. Metcalfe's thesis was on packet switching in ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network). In 1972 Metcalfe wrote a booklet detailing a range of uses for ARPAnet and a brief outline of how it worked. He then gave a demonstration of ARPAnet using packet switching to...