Jonathan Andrew Crowcroft (born 23 November 1957) is the Marconi Professor of Communications Systems in the

Department of Computer Science and Technology, University of Cambridge The Department of Computer Science and Technology, formerly the Computer Laboratory, is the computer science department of the University of Cambridge. it employed 35 academic staff, 25 support staff, 35 affiliated research staff, and about 15 ...

and the chair of the programme committee at the

Alan Turing Institute The Alan Turing Institute is the United Kingdom's national institute for data science and artificial intelligence, founded in 2015 and largely funded by the UK government. It is named after Alan Turing, the British mathematician and computing ...

Education

Crowcroft was educated at

Westminster School (God Gives the Increase) , established = Earliest records date from the 14th century, refounded in 1560 , type = Public school Independent day and boarding school , religion = Church of England , head_label = Hea ...

and graduated with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree in

physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

in 1979 from the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

where he was an undergraduate student of

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

. He then gained a

Master of Science A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast t ...

degree in

computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, ...

in 1981 and PhD in 1993, both from

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

Career and research

Crowcroft joined the University of Cambridge in 2001, prior to which he was Professor of Networked Systems at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

in the Computer Science Department. After he stepped down from UCL, he was succeeded by his former PhD student

Mark Handley Mark Handley is a playwright and screenwriter. In 1977, he and his wife moved to the Pacific Northwest where they lived in isolation in a log cabin that they built themselves. He is best known for his play ''Idioglossia An idioglossia (from ...

. he is a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

Wolfson College, Cambridge Wolfson College () is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The majority of students at the college are postgraduates. The college also admits "mature" undergraduates (aged 21 and above), with around ...

. Crowcroft contributed to successful start-up projects. He has been a member of the Scientific Council of IMDEA Networks Institute since 2007. He served on the advisory board of

Max Planck Institute for Software Systems The Max Planck Institute for Software Systems (MPI-SWS) is a computer science research institute co-located in Saarbrücken and Kaiserslautern, Germany. The institute is chartered to conduct basic research in all areas related to the design, an ...

. Crowcroft has written, edited and co-authored a books and publications which have been adopted internationally in academic courses, including ''TCP/IP & Linux Protocol Implementation: Systems Code for the Linux Internet'', ''Internetworking Multimedia'' and Open Distributed Systems. Crowcroft has also done research in theoretical

network science Network science is an academic field which studies complex networks such as telecommunication networks, computer networks, biological networks, cognitive and semantic networks, and social networks, considering distinct elements or actors rep ...

, particularly in the area of

Turing switch In theoretical network science, the Turing switch is a logical construction modeling the operation of the network switch, just as in theoretical computer science a Turing machine models the operation of a computer. Both are named in honor of the E ...

es, and he has suggested to replace general-purpose computers acting as

network switch A network switch (also called switching hub, bridging hub, and, by the IEEE, MAC bridge) is networking hardware that connects devices on a computer network by using packet switching to receive and forward data to the destination device. A netw ...

es with specially-built hardware dedicated to

packet switching In telecommunications, packet switching is a method of grouping data into '' packets'' that are transmitted over a digital network. Packets are made of a header and a payload. Data in the header is used by networking hardware to direct the p ...

, as well as using optical technology for the same purpose.

Awards and honours

Crowcroft was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

in 2013. His nomination reads: He was elected an

ACM Fellow ACM or A.C.M. may refer to: Aviation * AGM-129 ACM, 1990–2012 USAF cruise missile * Air chief marshal * Air combat manoeuvring or dogfighting * Air cycle machine * Arica Airport (Colombia) (IATA: ACM), in Arica, Amazonas, Colombia Computing * ...

in 2003, a chartered fellow of the British Computer Society, a Fellow of the

Institution of Electrical Engineers The Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) was a British professional organisation of electronics, electrical, manufacturing, and Information Technology professionals, especially electrical engineers. It began in 1871 as the Society of T ...

and a

of the Royal Academy of Engineering, as well as a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2004. He was a member of the

Internet Architecture Board The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) is "a committee of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and an advisory body of the Internet Society (ISOC). Its responsibilities include architectural oversight of IETF activities, Internet Standards ...

1996-2002, and attended most of the first 50

Internet Engineering Task Force The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is a standards organization for the Internet and is responsible for the technical standards that make up the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP). It has no formal membership roster or requirements and a ...

(IETF) meetings. Crowcroft served as general chair for the ACM SIGCOMM conference between 1995 and 1999, and received the

SIGCOMM Award The SIGCOMM Award recognizes lifetime contribution to the field of communication networks. The award is presented in the annual SIGCOMM Technical Conference. The awardees have been: * 2022 Henning Schulzrinne * 2021 Hari Balakrishnan * 2020 Ami ...

in 2009. The award to Crowcroft was

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crowcroft, Jon British computer scientists Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Fellows of Wolfson College, Cambridge 1957 births Living people People educated at Westminster School, London Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Alumni of University College London Fellows of the Royal Society