Vinton G. Cerf

Internet pioneer

Vinton Gray Cerf earned his B.S. in Mathematics at Stanford University in 1965, and his M.S. (1970) and Ph.D. (1972) at UCLA’s Computer Science program. At UCLA, Cerf worked with the U.S. Defense Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), where the earliest successful packet-switching experiments were carried out. In 1972, Cerf helped develop the ARPANET’s host-to-host protocol, “NCP.” He and Robert Kahn designed the TCP/IP protocols and basic architecture that made today’s Internet possible. From 1994-2005, he was Senior Vice President for Internet Architecture at MCI. He now serves as Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google. He has received numerous international honorary degrees and awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2005), the highest honor accorded to a civilian.