Robert W. Taylor
Taylor's influence was organizational as well as technical: he assembled and funded research groups that produced foundational networked-computing systems. This is relevant to hacker and security history because it situates later network practice in its institutional and technical origins.
Robert William Taylor was an American computer-science research manager and leader. He worked at ARPA during the formative period of interactive-computing and networking research.
Networks and personal computing
The Computer History Museum credits Taylor with initiating ARPANET and with sponsoring interactive-computing research. At Xerox PARC, he founded the Computer Science Laboratory, where teams worked on Ethernet, the Alto, and networked personal-computing systems.
In memoriam
Taylor retired in 1996 and died in 2017. His record is a reminder that major computing systems are built by communities of engineers and researchers, with program leadership helping sustain their work.
Timeline
- 1965Becomes director of ARPA's Information Processing Techniques Office.
- 1969Leaves ARPA after the initial ARPANET program period.
- 1970Founds the Computer Science Laboratory at Xerox PARC.
- 1983Becomes founding director of DEC's Systems Research Center.
- 2017-04-13Dies in Woodside, California.
Robert W. Taylor
- Type
- Person
- Era
- 1960s-2017
- Born
- 1932-02-10
- Died
- 2017-04-13
- Known for
- ARPANET initiation; ARPA Information Processing Techniques Office; Xerox PARC Computer Science Laboratory; DEC Systems Research Center
- Tags
- arpanet, computer-networks, xerox-parc, interactive-computing, research-management, internet-history
Created by Joas A Santos · Something wrong or want it removed? Open an issue.