Profs. Zvi Bern & Leonard Kleinrock Elected to the National Academy of Sciences

Bern and Kleinrock

From the UCLA Newsroom: Zvi Bern, a theoretical physicist, and Leonard Kleinrock, one of the early pioneers of the internet, have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research.

The two professors are among 120 new members and 34 international members recently announced by the academy. Membership is one of the highest honors a scientist in the United States can receive.

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Zvi Bern

Professor of physics and astronomy, UCLA College

Bern, a faculty member since 1992 and director of UCLA’s Mani L. Bhaumik Institute for Theoretical Physics, is internationally known for his theoretical work in elemntary particle physics. Using advanced theoretical methods to carry out complex computations, Bern is developing improved ways for physicists to understand how elementary particles scatter off each other, paticularly under extreme conditions, and has applied those ideas to physics at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, to maximally supersymmetric gauge and gravity theories, and to gravitational wave physics.

A fellow of the American Physical Society, Bern, along with David Kosower and Lance Dixon, was awarded the J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics in 2014. In 2023, the same trio won the Galileo Galilei Medal from the Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics.

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Leonard Kleinrock

Distinguished professor emeritus of computer science, UCLA Samueli School of Engineering

In 1962, as a graduate student at MIT, Kleinrock developed the mathematical theory of packet switching — a foundational technology of the internet that allows computers to exchange information across a network. A year later, he joined UCLA, where he continued to refine and test this process. On Oct. 29, 1969, Kleinrock’s team directed the successful transmission of the first message over the Arpanet from a computer in UCLA’s Boelter Hall to another computer at the Stanford Research Institute — a seminal moment that has been recognized as the birth of the internet.

Kleinrock continues to teach courses at UCLA Samueli and currently heads the UCLA Connection Lab, where he directs scholarly work and advises graduate students on computer networks and related topics like inclusive connectivity. In 2016, he created the Internet Research Initiative at UCLA, which supports undergraduate students in independent research.

Kleinrock is also a recipient of the National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest award for scientific achievement, and a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Inventors. He is an inaugural member of the Internet Hall of Fame.

With this year’s newly elected members, the academy now has 2,617 active members and 537 international members.

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The National Academy of Sciences was established in 1863 by a congressional act of incorporation signed by Abraham Lincoln. One of three national academies, along with National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine, it provides independent, objective advice to the federal government on matters related to science and technology. 

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Source: https://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/2-ucla-faculty-members-elected-to-national-academy-of-sciences.

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Kleinrock on the birth of the Internet:

Or direct to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9L4IjpSPUo.