John Davidson
This interview covers John Davidson’s beginnings in the field of computer communications and networking first as an undergraduate student at Middlebury College in Vermont and then as a graduate student at the University of Hawaii where he worked with fellow graduate student Charles Bass on the ALOHAnet in 1968. During his graduate career he also served as the university’s liaison to the ARPANET Technical Working Group. After obtaining both his MS and PhD degrees from the University of Hawaii, he moved to Massachusetts in 1977 where he worked as Senior Computer Scientist at Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN). From BBN, Davidson was hired by Bass to work for Zilog, which he would subsequently leave in 1979 to work for the newly founded UB (Ungermann-Bass) Networks where he served as the Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of Research and Development.
Keywords: ALOHAnet, Arpanet, Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN), Ungermann-Bass, Inc. (UB), TCP/IP, Zilog Inc., ZNet