Paul V. Mockapetris (born 1948 in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

, Massachusetts, US) is an American

computer scientist A computer scientist is a person who is trained in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation, as opposed to the hardware side on which computer engineers mainly focus (al ...

and

Internet pioneer Instead of having a single "inventor", the Internet was developed by many people over many years. The following are some Internet pioneers who contributed to its early and ongoing development. These include early theoretical foundations, specifyi ...

, who invented the Internet

Domain Name System The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information with domain names assigned to ...

(DNS).

Education

Mockapetris graduated from the

Boston Latin School The Boston Latin School is a public exam school in Boston, Massachusetts. It was established on April 23, 1635, making it both the oldest public school in the British America and the oldest existing school in the United States. Its curriculum f ...

in 1966, received his bachelor's degrees in physics and electrical engineering from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

in 1971 and his doctorate in information and computer science from the

University of California at Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

in 1982."ISI Names Dr. Paul Mockapetris Visiting Scholar"
, Information Sciences Institute, University of Southern California, 27 March 2003"Paul Mockapetris"
''Biology Daily'', 19 August 2006

Career

In 1983, he proposed a Domain Name System architecture in RFC 882 and RFC 883. He had recognized the problem in the early

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

(then

ARPAnet The Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) was the first wide-area packet-switched network with distributed control and one of the first networks to implement the TCP/IP protocol suite. Both technologies became the technical fou ...

) of holding name to address translations in a single table on the

hosts A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it. Host may also refer to: Places *Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County People *Jim Host (born 1937), American businessman *Michel Host ( ...

file of an

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also in ...

. Instead he proposed a distributed and dynamic DNS database: essentially DNS as it exists today.

Achievements

Mockapetris is a fellow of the IEEE and the Association for Computing Machinery. He: * joined the

Information Sciences Institute The USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI) is a component of the University of Southern California (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering, and specializes in research and development in information processing, computing, and communications techno ...

(ISI) of the

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

(USC) in 1978, where he: ** developed the first

SMTP The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) is an Internet standard communication protocol for electronic mail transmission. Mail servers and other message transfer agents use SMTP to send and receive mail messages. User-level email clients typical ...

email server, ** proposed the DNS architecture in 1983, ** wrote the first DNS implementation (called "Jeeves") for the

TOPS-20 The TOPS-20 operating system by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) is a proprietary OS used on some of DEC's 36-bit mainframe computers. The Hardware Reference Manual was described as for "DECsystem-10/DECSYSTEM-20 Processor" (meaning the DEC PDP- ...

in 1983, ** served as director of the high performance computing and communications division; * was program manager for networking at the

Advanced Research Projects Agency The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adv ...

(ARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense from 1990 to 1993; * served as chair of the Research Working Group of the U.S. Federal Networking Council; * served as chair of the

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) from 1994 to 1996; * 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 ...

(IAB) in 1994 and 1995; * worked for several Internet-related companies: employee number two at @Home (1995–1997), Software.com (1997–1998) (now OpenWave), Fiberlane (now Cisco), Cerent/Siara (now Redback Networks) (1998–1999), Urban Media (1999–2001), and NU Domain (from 1999); * was Chief Scientist and chairman of the Board of IP address infrastructure software provider Nominum (1999 to 2016). * is currently Chief Scientist at ThreatSTOP.

Awards

* 1997

John C. Dvorak John C. Dvorak (; born 1952) is an American columnist and broadcaster in the areas of technology and computing. His writing extends back to the 1980s, when he was a regular columnist in a variety of magazines. He was vice president of Mevio ...

Telecommunications Excellence Award "Personal Achievement - Network Engineering" for DNS design and implementation * 2002 Distinguished Alumnus award from the

University of California, Irvine The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...

* 2003

IEEE Internet Award IEEE Internet Award is a Technical Field Award established by the IEEE in June 1999. The award is sponsored by Nokia Corporation. It may be presented annually to an individual or up to three recipients, for exceptional contributions to the adv ...

for his contributions to DNS * 2004

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 ...

, for contributions to the Internet, including the development of domain and email protocols. * 2005 ACM

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 Amin ...

for lifetime contribution to the field of communication networks in recognition of his foundational work in designing, developing and deploying the Domain Name System, and his sustained leadership in overall Internet architecture development * 2006 ACM SIGCOMM Test of Time Paper Award for co-authoring paper "Development of the Domain Name System" * 2006

National Academy of Engineering The National Academy of Engineering (NAE) is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Engineering is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy ...

Member * 2012 inducted by the

Internet Society The Internet Society (ISOC) is an American nonprofit advocacy organization founded in 1992 with local chapters around the world. Its mission is "to promote the open development, evolution, and use of the Internet for the benefit of all people ...

into the

Internet Hall of Fame The Internet Hall of Fame is an honorary lifetime achievement award administered by the Internet Society (ISOC) in recognition of individuals who have made significant contributions to the development and advancement of the Internet.

as an "innovator" * 2013 Honoris Causa (honorary degree) by Miguel Hernández University (Alicante, Spain)"Paul Mockapetris invested Honoris Causa (Spanish)"
UMH communications. Accessed February 7, 2013 * 2019 ACM

Software System Award The ACM Software System Award is an annual award that honors people or an organization "for developing a software system that has had a lasting influence, reflected in contributions to concepts, in commercial acceptance, or both". It is awarded by ...

Requests for Comments (RFCs)

* RFC 1035 - Domain Names - Implementation and Specification, November 1987 * RFC 1034 - Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities, November 1987 * RFC 973 - Domain System Changes and Observations, January 1986 (obsoleted by 1034 and 1035) * RFC 883 - Domain Names - Implementation and Specification, November 1983 (updated by 973, obsoleted by 1034 and 1035) * RFC 882 - Domain Names - Concepts and Facilities, November 1983 (updated by 973, obsoleted by 1034 and 1035)

References

External links

Biography of Paul Mockapetris
at Nominum {{DEFAULTSORT:Mockapetris, Paul 1948 births Living people Fellows of the Association for Computing Machinery Internet pioneers People from Boston Boston Latin School alumni MIT School of Engineering alumni University of California, Irvine alumni American computer scientists American people of Lithuanian descent