Kilnam Chon (
Hangul
The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...
: 전길남; born 3 January 1943) is a South Korean computer scientist. As a result of his contributions,
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
became the second country in the world to have the IPv4 network (the Internet), after the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
.
Born in apan
Apan is a city and one of the 84 municipalities of Hidalgo, in central-eastern Mexico. The municipality covers an area of 346.9 km².
Overview
As of 2005, the municipality had a total population of 39,247.
It was an important site in the Wa ...
in 1943. He graduated from Osaka University
, abbreviated as , is a public research university located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It is one of Japan's former Imperial Universities and a Designated National University listed as a "Top Type" university in the Top Global University Project. ...
with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering in 1965, and then a Ph.D
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common Academic degree, degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields ...
in Systems Engineering from UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...
in 1974. He worked as a computer system designer at Rockwell International
Rockwell International was a major American manufacturing conglomerate involved in aircraft, the space industry, defense and commercial electronics, components in the automotive industry, printing presses, avionics and industrial products. R ...
and a member of technical staff at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center in the City of La Cañada Flintridge, California, United States.
Founded in the 1930s by Caltech researchers, JPL is owned by NASA an ...
until 1979. After returning to South Korea at the age of 36 in 1979, he worked as a researcher at the Korea Institute of Electronics Technology which became Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute
The Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute () is a Korean government-funded research institution in Daedeok Science Town in Daejeon, Republic of Korea.
Overview
Established in 1976, ETRI is a non-profit government-funded research i ...
later. From 1982 to 2008, he was a professor of computer science at KAIST
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) is a national research university located in Daedeok Innopolis, Daejeon, South Korea. KAIST was established by the Korean government in 1971 as the nation's first public, research ...
.
Chon produced many talents in the System Architecture Lab (SA Lab) he directed.
In May 1982, he helped develop IPv4 network (the internet) between Seoul National University
Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a national public research university located in Seoul, South Korea. Founded in 1946, Seoul National University is largely considered the most prestigious university in South Korea; it is one of the three "S ...
and the Korea Institute of Electronics Technology. As a result, South Korea became the second country in the world to be largely connected to the Internet, after the United States, and he is called "the father of Korean Internet".Internet Society
The Internet Society (ISOC) is an American nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1992 with local chapters around the world. Its mission is "to promote the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people ...
in their Global connectors category.
He retired from KAIST in 2008 and became a professor emeritus there. Afterwards, he became a visiting professor at
in 2008. He was a professor at
's Shonan Fujisawa campus in their policy and media research department.