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His employer, Raytheon, confirmed the news, CNN reported. He was 74 years old.

An MIT graduate, Tomlinson was working for a Boston tech firm when he came up with the idea of e-mail in 1971.

Upon his demise, Gmail tweeted: "Thank you, Ray Tomlinson, for inventing email and putting the @ sign on the map."

Tomlinson was also the first man to use the '@' at symbol for e-mails.  

 

The @ sign  separate the user name from the name of their machine, a scheme which has been used in email addresses ever since.

 

"Tomlinson's email program brought about a complete revolution, fundamentally changing the way people communicate," according to the Internet Hall of Fame in their account of his work.