David J. Farber, Grandfather of the Internet, Died at 91

Exam-focused facts from the 17 February 2026 current affairs briefing.

Key facts

David J. Farber, a computer science professor widely known as the grandfather of the internet, died of heart failure on 7 February at the age of 91 in Tokyo, Japan.
He had been teaching at Keio University in Japan since 2018 and previously conducted foundational networking research at Bell Laboratories starting in the mid-1950s.
Farber mentored Jonathan Postel, who helped define the Internet Protocol (IP), and Paul Mockapetris, who assisted in designing the Domain Name System (DNS).
In 1977, he co-authored a research paper with Paul Baran that anticipated the development of digital communication tools like email and messaging.