Google vice president known as 'Father of the Internet' to speak at Virginia Tech
Vinton G. Cerf, the co-designer of TCP/IP protocols and basic architecture of the Internet, will lecture at Virginia Tech on Monday, Dec. 7.
His talk, “The Unfinished Internet,” is from 11 a.m. to noon at the Holtzman Alumni Center’s Alumni Assembly Hall. Sponsored by Virginia Tech’s College of Science, the event is free and open to the public, no tickets needed, though space is limited.
Widely known as a "Father of the Internet," Cerf is the co-designer with Robert Kahn of TCP/IP protocols and the basic architecture of the Internet. In 1997, President Clinton recognized their work with the U.S. National Medal of Technology.
In 2005, Cerf and Kahn received the highest civilian honor bestowed in the United States, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It recognized that their work on the software code used to transmit data across the Internet put them at the forefront of a digital revolution that has transformed global commerce, communication, and entertainment.
Cerf is now 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.
From 1994-2005, Cerf served as senior vice president at MCI. Prior to that, he was vice president of the Corporation for National Research Initiatives, and from 1982-86 he served as vice president of MCI. During his tenure with the U.S. Department of Defense's Advanced Research Projects Agency from 1976-1982, Cerf played a key role in the development of Internet and Internet-related data packet and security technologies.
Cerf has chaired the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers since 2000. He has been a Visiting Scientist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory since 1998. He served as founding president of the Internet Society from 1992-1995 and was on its board until 2000.
Cerf is a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the Association for Computing Machinery, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Engineering Consortium, the Computer History Museum, and the National Academy of Engineering.
He holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from UCLA and more than a dozen honorary degrees.
Free parking for the event is available at the Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center. Find more parking information online or call (540) 231-3200.
