Peter Kirstein

[Alissa Cooper <[e-mail]>]

Sharing this sad news from Stephen Hailes.

>    It is with great sadness that I have to have to announce the death of 
>    Professor Peter Kirstein CBE FREng DFBCS FIET FInstP, an Internet pioneer 
>    and the founding head of the Department of Computer Science at UCL. Peter 
>    died yesterday morning (8th January) as a consequence of the brain cancer 
>    with which he had been diagnosed in the latter part of last year.
> 
>    Peter has come to be known as the father of the European Internet, both 
>    because he was instrumental in establishing the first connection to the 
>    ARPANET outside the US, and because of the role of Peter and his research 
>    group in developing TCP/IP. Peter continued throughout his life to be 
>    important in the development of network security protocols, video 
>    conferencing, multicast, directory services, secure e-mail, certificate 
>    authorities, and IPv6. He was instrumental in delivering effective Internet 
>    connectivity to the Caucasus and Central Asia through what was state-of-the 
>    art satellite technology as project manager of the SILK project.
> 
>    Peter won many plaudits throughout his life – to name but a few he was a 
>    recipient of the Marconi prize and the SIGCOMM award and was inducted into 
>    the Internet Hall of Fame as a pioneer as part of its first intake. Never 
>    one to rest on his laurels, Peter continued to be interested in and to work 
>    in new areas of networking, developing an interest in IoT and being an 
>    advocate for the Handle System developed by Bob Kahn as late as last year. 
>    Peter retired in November 2019, at the age of 86. He lived life to the full 
>    – he broke his pelvis skiing, only last year. He was a gentleman, innately 
>    kind and supportive, and someone to whom all were worthy of equal 
>    consideration, from the most junior of staff to the most senior. He 
>    retained a passionate interest in the Department of Computer Science at UCL 
>    to the very end of his life, and will be sorely missed by those of us that 
>    had the good fortune to know him, work with him, and call him friend.
> 
>    Peter is survived by his wife Gwen, daughters Lynn and Claire and their 
>    children.
> 
>    For those that are interested in early Internet developments, there is an 
>    opportunity to hear Peter speak about these in an interview with Jim 
>    Boulton filmed last year: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfzbAzGVSyE <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfzbAzGVSyE>. 
>    There is also an obituary in the New York Times 
>    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/technology/peter-kirstein-dead.html <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/08/technology/peter-kirstein-dead.html>.