Vinton “Vint” Gray Cerf was born on June 23, 1943 in New Haven, Connecticut (USA), although he grew up in Los Angeles. Nicknamed the “Father of the Internet,” this incombustible computer whiz has led a life filled with fascinating ideas and hard work. From a young age he was passionate about mathematics and the intellectual challenges it posed.
He graduated in mathematics and computer science from Stanford University and, in the early 1970s, began working with Robert Kahn on the development of a set of communications protocols for the military network, funded by the government agency DARPA ( Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency ). The goal was to connect remote systems to allow resource sharing and thus save costs. The investigations, led by Vinton Cerf, led to the design of the set of protocols that today are known as TCP / IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol), presented in 1972.
Cerf has received many important awards, including the 2004 Turing Prize (shared with Robert Kahn) or the 2002 Prince of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research (shared with Lawrence Roberts, Robert Kahn and Tim Berners-Lee).
We leave you with some of his most famous providential phrases:
“There are still many people who offer content for the mere pleasure of knowing that the information can be useful to other people.”
“In the future, no modem will be used to access the internet.”
“The website is the ideal interactive support to offer a service, provide information, do business, etc. in a more complete and direct way than any other”.
“In 2005 the chips will be so cheap that we will find them everywhere: the refrigerator, the washing machine and any other appliance.”
“In a short time we will have smart lines that will be fully integrated with the Network”
