Robert T. Braden

1934 - 2018

January 28, 1934 - April 16, 2018 Robert "Bob" Braden, a legendary internet pioneer, has died at age 84. Bob Braden played a pivotal role in the creation and development of the internet. During his long career, Bob contributed to fundamental internet communications protocols, operating standards and architecture. He co-edited the Request for Comments (RFC) document series, which laid the foundation for the internet's technical standards. Bob Braden completed his bachelor's degree in engineering and physics at Cornell University in 1957, followed by a master's degree in physics from Stanford in 1962. After graduation, he worked at Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, UCLA and ISI (USC Viterbi Information Sciences Institute). Bob's contributions to the development of the Internet were extensive. At UCLA in 1970, he helped develop the TCP/IP communications protocols on which the internet still operates. He was in charge of connecting UCLA to the ARPANET, a precursor of the internet, by means of the first supercomputer. After moving to USC Viterbi's Information Sciences Institute (ISI) in 1986, he became co-editor, with Joyce Reynolds, of the RFC documents – a series of documents that, along with other functions, sets standards for the internet. He was himself the author of over 60 RFCs, including the seminal series of RFCs beginning with RFC 1122, Requirements for Internet Hosts – Communication Layers. A fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery, Bob was active in the research community, leading and participating in multiple key task forces. He was a member of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) at its inception and served there for thirteen years. He played a crucial role in the Internet Engineering Task Force. He created the End-to-End Task Force (later the IRTF End-to-End Research Group), which he chaired for some twenty years. Alissa Cooper, IETF chair, writes of Bob: "So many in the IETF community have learned from him, been inspired by his work, and enjoyed his friendship. He will be sorely missed." He is survived by his two sons, David Braden and Tom Braden, and his granddaughter, Emma Agnes Braden.