Engineer is honored for helping to develop e-mail

A Boston engineer who is credited with being instrumental in the development of e-mail has been honored with an international award.

Raymond S. Tomlinson, a principal engineer at BBN Technologies in Cambridge, was presented with the 2009 Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research for his "advancement of human communications."

Martin Cooper, who created the first mobile telephone, was also honored with a twin award. He is shown (left) with Tomlinson in this image from the website of the foundation that made the awards.

The accolade, meant to honor achievements in technology and science, is funded by the Prince of Asturias Foundation of Oviedo, Spain. It accompanies a cash prize of more than $69,000.

"It is a privilege to have my name associated with this prestigious foundation and added to the very impressive roster," Tomlinson said.

In 1971, while working for BBN, Tomlinson developed a program that allowed messages to be sent between users on different computers, according to the foundation's website. He chose the sign @ to separate local from global e-mails.
(By Sean Sposito, Globe correspondent)