SMRTR ProgrammingMay 18, 2026Scientific American

The programmer whose code underpins the Internet

SMRTR summary

Sharla Perrine Boehm, a math teacher moonlighting at the RAND Corporation in the 1960s, built a computer simulation that proved packet-switching could create a self-healing, decentralized communications network. Her work directly underpinned the ARPANET and ultimately the modern internet — yet her name was erased from history while male colleagues received all the credit.

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