Stanford Engineering Hero Lecture
Dr. Vint Cerf: “Re-thinking the Internet”
Given the many remarkable achievements of Stanford Engineering alumni and faculty, we have introduced a program to honor the men and women responsible for great technical advances that make human, social and economic progress possible. The Stanford Engineering Heroes embodies all that the school stands for: innovation, entrepreneurship, leadership, and world-class teaching and research.
The School of Engineering is delighted to introduce Dr. Vint Cerf, a Stanford Engineering Hero, 2010. Dr. Cerf, widely known as one of the “Fathers of the Internet,” delivered a lecture at the Huang Center on February 8.
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“Re-thinking the Internet”
Despite its success, there are a number of directions in which the Internet could evolve and areas where it did not succeed in achieving a desired result. Dr. Cerf explores a number of ideas for additional functionality for the Internet and closes with a brief report on the state of development of an interplanetary internet project that is coming to initial operational capability.
Dr. Vint Cerf
Cerf is vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google. He is responsible for identifying new enabling technologies and applications on the Internet and other platforms for the company. Widely known as one of the “Fathers of the Internet,” Vint was the co-designer with Robert Kahn of TCP/IP protocols and basic architecture of the Internet. In 1997, President Clinton recognized their work with the U.S. National Medal of Technology. In 2005, Vint and Bob received the highest civilian honor bestowed in the U.S., the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It recognizes the fact that their work on the software code used to transmit data across the Internet has put them “at the forefront of a digital revolution that has transformed global commerce, communication, and entertainment.”
From 1994–2005, Vint served as senior vice president at MCI. Prior to that, he was vice president of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI), and from 1982–1986 he served as vice president of MCI. During his tenure with the U.S. Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) from 1976–1982, Vint played a key role leading the development of Internet and Internet-related data packet and security technologies. Cerf was an assistant professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Stanford from 1972–1976.
Since 2000, Vint has served as chairman of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and he has been a visiting scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory since 1998. He served as founding president of the Internet Society (ISOC) from 1992–1995 and was on the ISOC board until 2000. Vint is a Fellow of the IEEE, ACM, AAAS, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Engineering Consortium, the Computer History Museum and the National Academy of Engineering. He holds BS in mathematics from Stanford, a PhD in computer science from UCLA and more than a dozen honorary degrees.
