Vinton Cerf

Vinton (Vint) Cerf, born 23 June 1943, is an American computer scientist who is considered one of the ‘fathers of the Internet’. He obtained a BSc in mathematics at Stanford University and a PhD from UCLA in 1972, where he met Bob Kahn and worked on ARPANET. Cerf then moved to the US Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Cerf has been Vice President of MCI Digital Information Services and Corporation for National Research Initiatives (CNRI). He was Founding President of the Internet Society and served as Chair of the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology of the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. He was a member of the US Presidential Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC) and continues to attend committees focused on cyber-security.

In October 2005, Cerf became Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google. He is President of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and sits on the Board of Directors for a number of organisations. He was appointed by President Obama to serve on the National Science Board beginning in February 2013. Cerf is a Fellow of many institutions is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering. Cerf has been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame and has a number of awards recognising his leadership and contribution to the internet.