Professor Adolfas Laimutis Telksnys (1930–2022), Known as the Godfather of the Lithuanian Internet and E-mail, Has Passed

Adolfas Laimutis Telksnys (1930–2022), professor of the Institute of Data Science and Digital Technologies of the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics of Vilnius University (VU), Habilitated Doctor, creator of Lithuanian computing machines, pioneer of Internet development in Lithuania, died on Monday.

Professor Telksnys is a creator of Lithuanian computing machines, a pioneer in the development of the Internet in Lithuania and humanoid robots speaking in Lithuanian, and an expert in information development strategy, who significantly contributed to the development of Lithuania as one of the world's leading countries in the field of high-speed Internet.

In 1991, academician Telksnys established a connection with the University of Oslo and began to organise a satellite communication channel for Lithuania. In three months, it was made possible to semi-legally bring suitable equipment to Lithuania for that purpose, and on 10 October 1991, the country's first independent internet channel operating via satellite connection started operating in Lithuania – this was also one of Telksnys' projects. In addition, the first registered .lt domain was mii.lt, which was founded on 26 February 1993 by the then Institute of Mathematics and Informatics (now the Institute of Data Science and Digital Technologies of the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics of Vilnius University).

In addition, Professor Telksnys is the initiator of the LIEPA and LIEPA-2 projects. During the implementation of these projects, Lithuanian speech recognition and synthesis engines, user services running on personal computers, and engines and services for mobile devices, i.e. smartphones, tablets and humanoid robots, were created.

Telksnys is also known outside our country. He is valued as an expert: an expert of the EU e-infrastructure development group, an expert in the development of the information society at the European Commission's Future Technologies Research Institute, and a member of the IFIP Theoretical and Practical Modeling Group of the International Federation for Information Processing.

He was awarded the Officer's Cross of the Order of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas (2001). In 1998, he was awarded the title of Honorary Doctor of the Kaunas University of Technology. On 16 February 2019, the President of Lithuania Gitanas Nausėda awarded Habilitated Professor Dr. Telksnys with the Commander's Cross of the Lithuanian State Order for Merits to Lithuania for his services to Lithuania and for promoting the name of Lithuania in the world.