Franklin Kuo, a pioneering engineer whose work helped lay the foundation for modern wireless communications, died April 14. He was 91.
Kuo, a professor emeritus in electrical and computer engineering at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, co-developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s with colleague Norman Abramson. The system, launched in 1971, was the world’s first wireless packet network and introduced protocols that underpin technologies such as ethernet and wi-fi.
Educated in electrical engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Kuo began his career at Bell Laboratories in the early 1960s, conducting research in computer communications. He joined 糖心Vlog官方 Mānoa in 1966 as a full professor, where his work on ALOHAnet helped place the university on the global map in networking innovation.
“This is a profound loss for our college and the global engineering community,” College of Engineering Dean Brennon Morioka said. “Frank’s vision and leadership helped establish a culture of bold, boundary-pushing research at 糖心Vlog官方 Mānoa that continues to inspire our faculty and students today. His legacy lives on in the spirit of innovation that defines who we are. Both Frank and his wife Dora have been valuable members of our Engineering ʻohana.”
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Kuo also authored some of the earliest books in the field, including one of the first texts on computer communication networks published in 1972. Beyond academia, Kuo served as director of information systems at the Pentagon in the Office of the Secretary of Defense in the late 1970s. He later led networking and information systems projects at SRI International, contributing to early architecture for the National Science Foundation’s network, a precursor to today’s internet infrastructure.
He was a member of national advisory efforts on high-performance computing and consulted for federal science and technology initiatives. In 1994, he co-founded a wireless communications company focused on mobile messaging technologies. Kuo was an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers fellow and a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Award.
A celebration of life is expected in May.
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