1967, he suggested to Larry Roberts the idea of using separate small computers (later named Interface Message Processors) as a way of forming a message switching network and reducing load on the local computers. The same idea had earlier been independently developed by Donald Davies for the NPL network. The concept of packet switching was introduced to the ARPANET later at the Symposium on Operating Systems Principles in October 1967. Post-Nixon China trip In 1972, shortly after President Nixon's trip to China, Clark accompanied five other computer scientists to China for three weeks to "tour computer facilities and to discuss computer technology with Chinese experts in Shanghai and Beijing. Officially, the trip was seen by the Chinese in two lights: as a step in reestablishing the long-interrupted friendship between the two nations and as a step in opening channels for technical dialogue." The trip was organized by his colleague Severo Ornstein from MIT Lincoln Laboratory and Washington University. The other members of the group were: Thomas E. Cheatham, Anatol Holt, Alan J. Perlis and Herbert A. Simon. Death He was 88 when he died on February 22, 2016, at his home in Brooklyn due to severe atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. See also List of pioneers in computer science References External links Wesley Clark article in Smart Computing Encyclopedia Oral history interview with Wesley Clark. Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota. Clark describes his research at Lincoln Laboratory and interaction with the Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) of the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA). Topics include various custom computers built at MIT, including the LINC computer; timesharing and network research; artificial intelligence research; ARPA contracting; interaction with IPTO directors; the work of Larry Roberts at IPTO. Functional Description of the L1 Computer, March 1960 at bitsavers.org The Logical Structure of Digital Computers, October 1955 at bitsavers.org Multi-Sequence Program Concept, November, 1954 at bitsavers.org 1927 births 2016 deaths American engineers Washington University in St. Louis faculty Washington University physicists Scientists from New Haven, Connecticut Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Engineers from Connecticut MIT Lincoln Laboratory people Deaths from atherosclerosis