Tributes to internet pioneer Professor Peter Kirstein CBE

Academics have paid tribute to Professor Peter Kirstein, the founder of UCL Computer Science who played a key role in the development of the internet, following his death at the age of 86. Peter, often described as the father of the European internet, set up Britain's first connection to the ARPANET, a precursor to the internet, at his UCL laboratory in 1973. His research group produced the first European implementation of the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which ensures the reliable delivery of data across a network, and working with Stanford University conducted the first international test of TCP/IP. TCP remains the principal protocol for reliable data transfer in use in today's Internet. Peter joined the University of London Institute of Computer Science in 1967, first as Reader and then as Professor of Computer Communications Systems. He transferred to the new UCL Department of Statistics and Computer Science in 1973, before setting up the Department of Computer Science in 1980, serving as Head of Department for its first 14 years. He received the SIGCOMM Award in 1999 for his contribution to the international development of the internet, was awarded a CBE in 2003 for his work on the internet, and was named an Internet Hall of Fame Pioneer in 2012.