Who invented Email? This guy!

It’s a part of our everyday lives, home, work or on the phone – we’re all addicted to email. Today, The Boston Globe reports that the man that started this revolutionary form of communication is recieving a very nice reward for his efforts.  Article is re-printed below, or you can read it here. Oh, and the guy that invented the mobile phone got his dues as well.

Facebook is great but these are the guys we should be celebrating!

A Boston engineer who is credited with the development of e-mail was honored with an international award.

Raymond S. Tomlinson, a principal engineer at BBN Technologies in Cambridge, was presented with the 2009 Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research for his “advancement of human communications.”

Martin Cooper, who created the first mobile telephone, was also honored with a twin award. He is shown (left) with Tomlinson in this image from the foundation’s website.

The accolade, meant to honor achievements in technology and science, is funded by the Prince of Asturias Foundation of Oviedo, Spain. It accompanies a cash prize of more than $69,000.

“It is a privilege to have my name associated with this prestigious foundation and added to the very impressive roster,” Tomlinson said.

In 1971, while working for BBN, Tomlinson developed a program that allowed messages to be sent between users on different computers, according to the foundation’s website. He chose the sign @ to separate local from global e-mails.
(By Sean Sposito, Globe correspondent)