List of Internet pioneers

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Instead of having a single "inventor", the Internet was developed by many people over many years. The following people are Internet pioneers who have been recognized for their contribution to its early and ongoing development. These include theoretical foundations, specifying protocols, and expansion beyond a research tool to wide deployment.

This list includes people who were:

• acknowledged by Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn in their seminal 1974 paper on internetworking, A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication;^[1] or
• received the IEEE Internet Award; or have been
• inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame; or are
• included on the Stanford University "Birth of the Internet" plaque.^{[2][nb 1]}

Among the pioneers, along with Cerf and Kahn, Bob Metclafe, Donald Davies, Louis Pouzin, Steve Crocker and Ray Tomlinson meet three out of the four criteria above; as well as Jon Postel, considering the 2003 IEEE Internet award on which he is cited.

Some other Internet pioneers, who have made notable contributions to the development of Internet but do not meet any of the four criteria above, are listed in the final section of the article.

Note: this article is in general chronological order of the development process of the Internet.

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