Van Jacobson

Van Jacobson is one of the primary contributors to the technological foundations of today’s Internet. While employed at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratories in Berkeley, Calif., he collaborated with the Computer Science Research Group at the University of California to help solve the problem of computer congestion. His strategy to handle transmission control protocol congestion, which is used in about 90 percent of all Internet hosts, is widely credited with enabling the Internet to expand to support increasing demands of size and speed. He also has developed numerous other Internet tools used in network diagnosis, data compression, and audio and video conferencing.

Chief scientist at Packet Design inMountain View, Calif., Mr. Jacobson has written or co-authored dozens of papers in the area of networking technology and received the 2001 ACM Sigcomm Award for Lifetime Achievement.