Vinton Cerf – One of the Fathers of the Internet

Vinton Cerf

Vinton “Vint” Gray Cerf
June 23, 1943, New Haven, Connecticut
Nationality: United States of America
Category: Scientists
Occupation: Mathematics, Computer programmer
Unique distinction: One of the fathers of the Internet, Co-Inventor Internet’s TCP-IP protocol, Co-Founder of Internet Society (1992), and The first President of Internet Society (1992-95).
Gender: Male

Quotes:
1. The Internet lives where anyone can access it.
2. This is a place that’s just full of creative energy, and I like places like that.
3. The computer would do anything you programmed it to do.
4. We never, ever in the history of mankind have had access to so much information so quickly and so easily.
5. The time is now to think beyond the Earth. Lest you think this is all fantasy, let me assure you that it is quite real.
6. But what we all have to learn is that we can’t do everything ourselves.
7. You don’t have to be young to learn about technology. You have to feel young.
8. The closer you look at something, the more complex it seems to be.
9. You created your own universe and you were master of it. The computer would do anything you programmed it to do. It was this unbelievable sandbox in which every grain of sand was under your control.
Video: Lection

Achievements and contributions:


Social and professional position: American computer scientist and mathematician.
The main contribution to (Best known for): Vinton Cerf is regarded as one of the Fathers of the Internet.

Contributions: 

Vinton Cerf is an American computer scientist called “The father of the Internet”. His contributions have been recognized repeatedly, with honorary degrees, and awards that include the National Medal of Technology, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Turing Award, which is sometimes called the “Nobel Prize of Computer Science.” He and Robert Kahn were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in May 2006.
In 1992 he founded the Internet Society (ISOC), which is intended to both promote the views of ordinary users of the Internet and also serve as an umbrella body for the technical groups developing the Internet. He served as the first chair of the Internet Society and relinquished that position in 1999.
In 1997, Cerf joined the Board of Trustees of Gallaudet University, the first school of higher learning for the deaf and hard of hearing.
Later he received an award from the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Vint Cerf was the co-designer with Robert E. Kahn of the transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP), first tested in 1977, which still provides the packet-switching backbone for the internet. This protocol allowed ARPA to connect various independent networks together to form one large network of networks on the Internet.
When the Internet began to transition to a commercial opportunity, Cerf moved to MCI where he was instrumental in the development of the first commercial email system (MCI Mail) connected to the Internet.
Now Cerf is vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google. He has become well known for his predictions on how technology will affect future society, encompassing such areas as artificial intelligence, environmentalism, the advent of IPv6 and the transformation of the television industry and its delivery model. He will also be an active public face for Google in the Internet world.
Honours and Awards: He was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in May 2006. He has the National Medal of Technology (1997), the Turing Award (2004) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2005), the Japan Prize (2008), the Harold Pender Award (2010), the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering (2013).
Major works: The transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP).

Career and personal life:


Origin: Vinton Cerf was born on June 23, 1943, in  New Haven, Connecticut, the son of Muriel (née Gray), a housewife, and Vinton Thruston Cerf, an aerospace executive. He is a cousin of Random House founder Bennett Cerf.
Education: He studied at Van Nuys High School, Van Nuys, CA (1961) and Stanford University (1965), where he majored in mathematics.

Career highlights: 

When Cerf graduated from Stanford in 1965, majoring in mathematics, he went to work for IBM (1965-1967) as a systems engineer.
Soon he left IBM to attend graduate school at UCLA where he earned his master’s degree in 1970 and his PhD degree in 1972.
During his graduate student years, he worked in Professor Leonard Kleinrock’s data packet networking group that connected the first two nodes of the ARPANET, the predecessor to the Internet, and “contributed to a host-to-host protocol” for the ARPANet. While at UCLA, he also met Robert E. Kahn, who was working on the ARPANet hardware architecture.
After receiving his doctorate, Cerf became an assistant professor at Stanford University from 1972-1976, where he “conducted research on packet network interconnection protocols and co-designed the DoD TCP/IP protocol suite with Kahn.
Cerf then moved to DARPA in 1976, where he stayed until 1982.
Later Cerf was the lead engineer and later a vice president of MCI Digital Information Services from 1982 to 1986. Then he worked at the Corporation for National Research Initiatives VP (1986-94). Cerf rejoined MCI in 1994 and served as Senior Vice President of Technology Strategy until 2005.  Also, he worked as WorldCom Senior VP for Internet Architecture and Technology (1998-2002)
Cerf joined the board of the (ICANN) in 1999 and served until the end of 2007. Cerf has worked for Google as its Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist since September 2005.
Personal life: He was born on June 23, 1943, in  New Haven,  but grew up in Los Angeles. Cerf did very well in school and showed a strong aptitude for math. Already at this time, he began to develop an interest in computers. Also, he was fascinated by the science fiction of Ray Bradbury and Hal Clement.
He with his wife Sigrid (m. Sep-1966) and two sons David and Bennett currently resides in Virginia.
Zest: He had an unusual style of dress for a school kid. He wore a jacket and tied it most days. Cerf is still known for his impeccable style. He is usually seen in three-piece suits. “Freedom of connection, with any application, to any party, is the fundamental social basis of the Internet, and, now, the society based on it.”- said Vinton Cerf.