West LA Times

Zvi Bern, a theoretical physicist, and Leonard Kleinrock, an early pioneer of the internet, have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences. This recognition is due to their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. The professors are among 120 new members and 34 international members recently announced by the academy. Membership is considered one of the highest honors a scientist in the United States can receive.

Bern has been a faculty member since 1992 and currently serves as director of UCLA’s Mani L. Bhaumik Institute for Theoretical Physics. He is internationally recognized for his theoretical work in elementary particle physics. Bern uses advanced theoretical methods to carry out complex computations, developing improved ways for physicists to understand how elementary particles scatter off each other, particularly under extreme conditions. He has applied these ideas to physics at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, maximally supersymmetric gauge and gravity theories, and gravitational wave physics.

A fellow of the American Physical Society, Bern was awarded the J. J. Sakurai Prize for Theoretical Particle Physics in 2014 alongside David Kosower and Lance Dixon. In 2023, this trio also won the Galileo Galilei Medal from the Galileo Galilei Institute for Theoretical Physics.

Kleinrock developed the mathematical theory of packet switching — a foundational technology of the internet that allows computers to exchange information across a network — as a graduate student at MIT in 1962. A year later, he joined UCLA where he continued refining this process. On Oct. 29, 1969, Kleinrock’s team successfully transmitted the first message over Arpanet from a computer in UCLA’s Boelter Hall to another computer at Stanford Research Institute — an event widely recognized as the birth of the internet.

Kleinrock continues teaching courses at UCLA Samueli and currently heads UCLA Connection Lab where he directs scholarly work and advises graduate students on computer networks and related topics. In 2016, he created the Internet Research Initiative at UCLA, supporting undergraduate students in independent research.

Kleinrock has received the National Medal of Science, the nation’s highest award for scientific achievement. He is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Inventors. Kleinrock is an inaugural member of the Internet Hall of Fame.

With this year's newly elected members, the academy now has 2,617 active members and 537 international members.

The National Academy of Sciences was established in 1863 by a congressional act signed by Abraham Lincoln. It is one of three national academies alongside the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine. The academy provides independent, objective advice to the federal government on matters related to science and technology.