Vint Cerf

Vinton Gray Cerf (born June 23, 1943 in New Haven, Connecticut) is an American computer scientist who is commonly referred to as the "father of the Internet" for his key technical and managerial role in the creation of the Internet and the TCP/IP protocols which it uses.

Career

As a teenager, he attended Van Nuys High School. After expressing an early interest in computers, he attended Stanford University, taking summer jobs at a number of companies such as North American Aviation and Rocketdyne. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from Stanford in 1965.

Related Topics:
Van Nuys High School - Stanford University - North American Aviation - Rocketdyne - Bachelor of Science - Mathematics - 1965

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After graduation, he went to work for IBM, but soon decided that he wanted to learn more about computers. In 1967, he returned to school, enrolling in UCLA's computer science program, where he was a student under Leonard Kleinrock. He received Master of Science and Ph.D. degrees in 1970 and 1972.

Related Topics:
IBM - 1967 - UCLA - Leonard Kleinrock - Master of Science - Ph.D. - 1970 - 1972

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While at UCLA, he worked on the ARPANET, the earliest packet switched computer network. During this period (as well as later), he was the author of several RFCs. He continued working on computer networks when he became a professor at Stanford University in 1972.

Related Topics:
ARPANET - Packet switched - Computer network - RFCs - Stanford University - 1972

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Shortly thereafter, in 1973, Bob Kahn (whom Cerf already knew, since Kahn had been in charge of the ARPANET project at its prime contractor, Bolt, Beranek and Newman) and Cerf started thinking about how to connect together several different packet switching networks, into what we now call an internetwork. Their 1974 paper, A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication is now recognized as the fundamental document in this (then-new) field.

Related Topics:
1973 - Bob Kahn - Bolt, Beranek and Newman - Internetwork - 1974

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Soon afterwards, in 1976, he was asked to move to the United States Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), to run a research and development program in this area. During his tenure, from 1976 to 1982, he played a key role in leading the development of the TCP/IP protocols and the Internet.

Related Topics:
1976 - United States Department of Defense - Advanced Research Projects Agency - Research and development - 1982

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After that, as vice president of MCI Digital Information Services from 1982 to 1986, he led the engineering of MCI Mail, the first commercial email service to be connected to the Internet.

Related Topics:
MCI - 1986 - MCI Mail - Email

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He then rejoined Kahn at the latter's Corporation for National Research Initiatives in 1986, staying until 1994. While there, he worked on a number of projects, such as digital libraries and knowbots.

Related Topics:
Corporation for National Research Initiatives - 1994 - Digital libraries - Knowbot

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He returned to MCI in 1994, as the Senior Vice President of Internet Architecture, where he remained until 2005. On September 8, 2005 Google Inc. announced that it hired Cerf as "Chief Internet Evangelist" http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/vintcerf.html.

Related Topics:
2005 - Google Inc.

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He joined the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) in 1999, and is serving a term until 2007; he is currently the ICANN Chair.

Related Topics:
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers - 1999 - 2007

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He is also working on the Interplanetary Protocol, together with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. It will be a new standard to communicate from planet to planet, using radio/laser communications that are highly tolerant to signal degradation. http://www.ipnsig.org/.

Related Topics:
Interplanetary Protocol - NASA - Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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