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Vint Cerf

Co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols, a father of the internet

Born 1943

Photo: Duncan.Hull · CC BY-SA 4.0

Vint Cerf and Robert Kahn designed the protocols that let separate networks talk to each other, which is what turned a set of local networks into the internet. He has spent decades since arguing for an open internet and now works on interplanetary networking.

Key achievements

  • Co-designed TCP/IP, the protocols that run the internet
  • Turing Award, 2004, with Robert Kahn
  • Chief Internet Evangelist at Google since 2005

Universities

  • University of California, Los AngelesDoctorate1967–1972

    Los Angeles, California

    Took his master's and 1972 PhD in computer science, working in the laboratory that sent the first ARPANET message.

  • Stanford UniversityProfessor1972–1976

    Stanford, California (next to Palo Alto)

    Assistant professor from 1972 to 1976, where much of the TCP protocol design was done.

Facts

  • He was in the UCLA laboratory that sent the first ARPANET message on 29 October 1969; the system crashed after two letters, so the internet's first word was LO.
  • He is hard of hearing and met his wife at a hearing aid dispenser's office; he has pushed for accessibility standards on the web ever since.
  • He wears a three-piece suit every day, a habit that makes him instantly recognisable at engineering conferences.

Photographs

Photographs come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences; the author and licence are shown on each image.

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