Donald Davies

Donald Watts Davies, CBE FRS (7 June 1924 – 28 May 2000) was a Welsh computer scientist who was employed at the UK National Physical Laboratory (NPL).

This article is about Donald Davies, the computer scientist. For other uses, see Donald Davies (disambiguation).

Donald Watts Davies

CBE FRS
Born(1924-06-07)7 June 1924
Treorchy, Glamorgan, Wales
Died28 May 2000(2000-05-28) (aged 75)
Esher, Surrey, England
Alma materImperial College
Known forPacket switching
AwardsCBE
FRS
Distinguished Fellow, BCS
Scientific career
FieldsComputer science
InstitutionsNational Physical Laboratory

In 1965 he conceived of packet switching, which is today the dominant basis for data communications in computer networks worldwide. Davies proposed a commercial national data network in the United Kingdom and designed and built the local-area NPL network to demonstrate the technology. Many of the wide-area packet-switched networks built in the 1970s were similar "in nearly all respects" to his original 1965 design. The ARPANET project credited Davies for his influence, which was key to the development of the Internet.

Davies' work was independent of the work of Paul Baran in the United States who had a similar idea in the early 1960s, and who also provided input to the ARPANET project, after his work was highlighted by Davies' team.

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