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Lawrence Roberts, the American scientist credited for designing and building the forerunner of the internet, has died at 81 years of age. His family said that he died of a heart attack on December 26.

Dr. Roberts is recognised as one of the four founding fathers of the internet alongside Robert Kahn, Vinton Cerf and Leonard Kleinrock.

In the late 1960s, Roberts ran the part of the United States Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA) saddled with the creation of a computer network called ARPANET (ARPA Network). In 1969, the first four computers were connected to ARPANET and it grew tremendously as other universities and research institutions joined the network.

The project persisted until 1983 when it was coalesced into the larger internet. ARPANET pioneered the technologies underpinning the internet in use today.