Ray Tomlinson

Ray Tomlinson was an American computer engineer who implemented the first email system for sending messages between computers on ARPANET and introduced the @ symbol in email addresses.

Connect

SNDMSG: SNDMSG was a program that let users on the same computer exchange electronic messages. Tomlinson adapted it to send messages across ARPANET rather than only between local users.
BBN Technologies: BBN Technologies is a research and engineering company that helped develop ARPANET and its early technologies. Tomlinson worked there when he built his networked email program.
Larry Roberts: Larry Roberts was an American computer scientist who led the ARPANET program at the Advanced Research Projects Agency. Roberts helped direct the network project whose computers Tomlinson connected through email.
Electronic mail: Electronic mail is the exchange of digital messages through computer systems and networks. Tomlinson's program helped establish the networked form of this communication.
CPYNET: CPYNET was a file-transfer program Tomlinson modified to move messages between networked computers. Its transfer capability supplied the network side of his email system.
Bolt, Beranek and Newman: Bolt, Beranek and Newman was the original name of the engineering firm later known as BBN Technologies. The company employed Tomlinson during the email work, before its name was shortened to BBN.
J. C. R. Licklider: J. C. R. Licklider was an American psychologist and computer scientist who championed interactive computing and networked communication. His vision of networked computers helped shape the research environment behind ARPANET.
SMTP: SMTP is the Internet protocol used to send email between mail servers. It later standardized the message-sending role pioneered by early network email.
ARPANET: ARPANET was an early packet-switching network that connected research computers and preceded the modern Internet. It provided the network on which Tomlinson tested intercomputer email.
TENEX: TENEX was an influential time-sharing operating system used on several ARPANET computers. Tomlinson's early email programs ran on TENEX systems.