DAVID FARBER, considered by many to be the grandfather of the Internet, is currently Chief Technologist, Federal Communications Commission.
In his own words: "I am a faculty member of the Computer and Information Science Department and of the Electrical Engineering Department.at the University of Pennsylvania. I also teach in our newTelecommunications and Networking MS program and am on the Faculty Council of the SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management of the Wharton School.
"At UPenn, I am Director of the Distributed Computer Laboratory --DSL where, with Prof. Jon Smith, we manage leading edge research in High Speed Networking. Research papers of the DSL are available in itselectronic library,
"Some of my early academic research work was focused at creating the worlds first operational Distributed Computer System -- DCS while I was with the ICS Department at the University of California at Irvine. After that, I was with the Electrical Engineering Department of theUniversity of Delaware, I helped conceive and organize CSNet, NSFNet and the NREN.
"I had graduated from the Stevens Institute of Technology in 1956 and then started a eleven year career at Bell Laboratories where I helped design the first electronic switching system - the ESS as well as helping to design the programming language SNOBOL.. I then went west to The Rand Corporation and to Scientific data Systems prior to joining academia. At both Bell Labs and Rand, I had the privilege, at a young age, of working with and learning from giants in our field. Truly I can say (as have others) that I have done good things because I stood on the shoulders of those giants. In particular, I owe much toDr. Richard Hamming, Paul Baran and George Mealy.
"I am on the Board of Directors of the Electronic Frontier Foundation -- the EFF and a member of the Board of Trustees of the Internet Society -- the ISOC . I am also a Fellow of the Center for Global Communications of Japan -- Glocom and a Member of the Advisory Board of the Center for Democracy and Technology - CDT. I have just completed 10 years of service on the National Research Council's Computer Science and Telecommunications Board -- CSTB. I am a Fellow of the IEEE and was the recipient of the 1995 Sigcomm Awardfor life long contributions to the computer communications field.
"I am also on the Board of Directors of the Democrats Online.
My industrial experiences are extensive, Just as I entered the academic world, I co-founded Caine, Farber & Gordon Inc. (CFG Inc.) which became one of the leading suppliers of software design methodology. I am also on a number of industrial advisory boards including Metricom, COM21, Earthlink, Intertrust , Covad, Torrent and the DICE Company.
"One of my hobbies and one of my current contributions to the networking community is the Interesting People mailing list. Anarchive is kept of past and current messages. You can apply for membership by emailing me and labeling the message as about joining the list (see Wired Magazine Sept 1996).
