 |
For his contributions to computer architecture, operating systems, and software engineering.
"I realized it had taken 20 years for the Internet to take off, from 1973 until 1993, so I wondered what I should be doing to prepare for our needs in the future." |
Vint Cerf is considered one of the most celebrated technical architects of the last century. In 1973, while working at DARPA with Bob Kahn, Cerf developed TCP/IP, the computer networking protocol which set the transmission standard for data communications on the Internet and earned him the title "Father of the Internet."
As senior vice-president of Internet architecture and technology at MCI World COM, Cerf is the company's chief Internet strategist and works to advance Internet frameworks. In the 1980's, he led the engineering team that launched MCI E-mail, the first commercial Internet e-mail service.
Cerf recently joined a small team of engineers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab to develop a wireless communications network that would move the Internet into outer space. This project, named the Interplanetary Net (IPN), is developing a system in which space probes and satellites will act as Net gateways and allow space craft and astronauts to talk to and from Earth and among themselves.
In 1992, Cerf founded the Internet Society and served as its president for three years and chairman of the board until 1999. He also serves as technical adviser to the television show Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict. Cerf received his BA in math from Stanford in 1965 and his MS and Ph. D. degrees from UCLA.
He is a recipient of the US National Medal of Technology and is a member of President Clinton's panel on Information Infrastructure which focuses on the next generation Internet.