Curiosity Expert: Professor Robert M. Metcalfe

Professor of Innovation, University of Texas at Austin

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Before becoming a professor, from 1965 to 1979, Bob was an engineer-scientist. During that time he helped pioneer the Internet. In 1973, at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, he invented Ethernet, the local-area networking or LAN standard on which he shares four patents. Today, perhaps a billion new Ethernet ports are shipped annually, including WiFi.

As an entrepreneur-executive from 1979 to 1990, Bob founded 3Com Corporation, the billion-dollar networking company where at various times he was Chairman, CEO, division general manager, and vice president of engineering, sales and marketing.

From 1990 to 2000, while a publisher-pundit, Bob was CEO of IDG's InfoWorld Publishing Company. For eight years, he opined about the Internet in an InfoWorld column read weekly by half a million information technologists. Bob's books include Packet Communication, Beyond Calculation, and Internet Collapses.

While a venture capitalist from 2001 to 2010, Bob was a Limited, Venture, and then General Partner in PVP III, IV and V, where his focus was on university spin-outs, specializing in energy technologies. He also served as a director of a dozen Polaris-backed start-ups, becoming chairman of three and Interim CEO of two.

Bob graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1969 with bachelors degrees in electrical engineering and industrial management. He received a master's degree in applied mathematics from Harvard University in 1970. In 1973, he received his Ph.D. in computer science from Harvard, where his dissertation was Packet Communication.

Boards:

• Bob now serves on the boards of Polaris-backed start-ups including 1366 Technologies, Ember, Infinite Power Solutions, SiOnyx, and Sun Catalytix.
• Bob is also director-trustee-advisor to Avistar Communications, USC Stevens, XPrize Foundation, and MIT's Corporation, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Department of Chemistry, and Department of Mathematics.

Awards:

• In 1980, Bob received the Hopper Award from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).
• In 1988, he received the Bell Medal from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).
• In 1996, he received the IEEE Medal of Honor.
• In 1997, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering, and in 1999, to the International Engineering Consortium.
• In 2003, Bob received the Marconi Prize and was inducted into the Bay Shore High School Hall of Fame.
• In 2005, Bob received the National Medal of Technology for his "leadership in the invention, standardization, and commercialization of Ethernet."
• Bob entered the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2007 and the Computer History Museum Hall of Fellows in 2008.