<Tr> <Th> Occupation </Th> <Td> Computer programmer, inventor, electrical engineer </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Known for </Th> <Td> Invented the first email system </Td> </Tr> <P> Raymond Samuel "Ray" Tomlinson (April 23, 1941--March 5, 2016) was a pioneering American computer programmer who implemented the first email program on the ARPANET system, the precursor to the Internet, in 1971 . It was the first system able to send mail between users on different hosts connected to ARPANET . Previously, mail could be sent only to others who used the same computer . To achieve this, he used the @ sign to separate the user name from the name of their machine, a scheme which has been used in email addresses ever since . The Internet Hall of Fame in its account of his work commented "Tomlinson's email program brought about a complete revolution, fundamentally changing the way people communicate". Tomlinson is internationally known and credited as the inventor of the email . </P> <P> Tomlinson was born in Amsterdam, New York, but his family soon moved to the small, unincorporated village of Vail Mills, Broadalbin, New York . He attended Broadalbin Central School in nearby Broadalbin, New York . Later he attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York where he participated in the co-op program with IBM . He received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from RPI in 1963 . </P>

When was email invented and who is considered the inventor