Bob Metcalfe
Bob Metcalfe
Bob Metcalfe is a 21st-century Renaissance man—although he denies he ever considered himself a “medieval man.” Bob was an inventor, electrical engineer, publisher, expert, venture investor, professor, innovator and now a geothermal engineer. As Bob observes, on the verge of reaching the teenage age of 77 in just a few weeks, “I’m starting my seventh career!” Metcalfe is also now the recipient of the prestigious 2022 Turing Award, presented to him on June 10 in San Francisco is awarded. Earning the Turing is tantamount to being anointed as a Rock Star of Tech.
I first met Bob two decades ago at the Nantucket Conference, an industry gathering of business and technology founders and venture investors on the “island far away” of Nantucket, MA. Bob’s role at the Nantucket Conference was that of resident expert and wise man and final best of class for nearly a decade. As he describes it, “My job was to sit through each session for two days and then summarize the takeaways and key takeaways. Not everyone liked my conclusions.”
Bob has never been immune to strong public positions and provocative statements. In a famous 1996 incident, Metcalfe falsely predicted the collapse of the Internet and agreed to “eat his words” on a public stage. As Reuters reported at the time, “The networking pioneer-turned-computer-industry columnist who last year predicted the collapse of the internet Thursday kept his promise by literally eating his words,” noting that Metcalfe filled the offending column with liquid in a blender before pouring it into a bowl and “slurping down the contents of the bowl to the cheers of the crowd”. Metcalfe remarked wryly, “I was wrong. I ate the pillar. I’m sorry. I’m not worth it”. Always the graceful showman.
Over the decades, Metcalfe has built a legendary reputation in the world of innovation – from Boston to Silicon Valley to Austin (TX) and back. He is now returning to his roots at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he received his BS in Electrical Engineering in 1969 and his PhD in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science in 1973, in addition to an MS in Applied Mathematics from Harvard Business School. Metcalfe will return to his alma mater at MIT as a Research Affiliate in Computational Engineering at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, commonly known as CSAIL.
Metcalfe will forever be remembered as the inventor of Ethernet (he is nicknamed “Ether Dad”), which he introduced in a May 22, 1973 memo while working at the Xerox Research (PARC) computer science lab in Silicon Valley. He refers to Ethernet as an “installation for the Internet”, whereby PCs were initially connected via a local area network (LAN). Metcalfe founded 3Com (short for “Computer Communication Capability”), an industry pioneer in computer networking, where he served as founder, chairman, CEO, investor and “cheerleader”. The company was acquired by Hewlett-Packard in 2009 for $2.7 billion in cash. During this time, Metcalfe also became known for Metcalfe’s Law, which states that the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of users connected to the system, a fundamental premise behind the Internet.
After retiring from 3Com, Metcalfe moved on to his next career – as CEO/Editor of International Data Group’s (IDG) highly regarded InfoWorld Magazine, followed by a stint as a Limited and General Partner at Polaris Ventures, where he was a Partner Emeritus remains – previously in 2011 he relocated to Austin, TX to serve as Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Cockrell School of Engineering and the McCombs School of Management at the University of Texas, where he remains Professor Emeritus of Electrical and Computational Engineering is.
Returning to work at MIT CSAIL brings Metcalfe closer to his summer home in Owls Head, Maine in the Camden, Maine area. There, Bob navigates the waters of Penobscot Bay in his fleet of small boats. In 1996, Bob, along with former Apple Computer CEO John Scully, launched the Pop Tech conference in Camden. The conference, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2021, describes itself as a “global network dedicated to the vanguard of emerging technologies, science and creative expression”. Bob will continue to split his time between Maine, Austin and Cambridge (MA).
Long considered the Nobel Prize in computer science, the Turing Award was first presented in 1966 by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). The awards were created in honor of Alan Turing, the British mathematician credited with founding the foundation of theoretical computing and artificial intelligence, whose tragic life was portrayed in the 2014 film The Imitation Game, which received a nomination for Best Picture and Best Picture received Actor nomination for Benjamin Cumberbatch’s moving performance at the 87th Academy Awards.
The Turing is awarded annually to individuals who have made a lasting contribution or great technical importance to the field of computer science. Widely regarded as the highest recognition in computing, the award is accompanied by a $1 million prize funded by Google. Metcalfe admits to being honored to receive the award, commenting, “Turing recipients include the greatest pioneers in the advancement of computer science, from Marvin Minsky to Tim Berners-Lee. I am grateful to be counted among these giants.”
Metcalfe looks forward to continuing its efforts in educating the next generation of innovation leaders. He welcomes the advancement of what he sees as a collaborative innovation ecosystem stretching from Silicon Valley in the west to Austin in the southwest and Boston in the northeast. His conclusion: “I am motivated to learn. I enjoy learning!” Congratulations to Bob Metcalfe on receiving the 2022 Turing Award and we look forward to seeing what the next 20 years will bring. We are confident that it will be an innovative and fun journey.
