The inductees, who were honored at a special ceremony in San José, Costa Rica, have expanded the Internet’s reach into new regions and communities, helped foster a greater understanding of the way the Internet works, and enhanced security to increase user trust in the network.
“The Internet’s design has always enabled people to see a problem, and get to work on solving it,” said Andrew Sullivan, Internet Society President and CEO. “This year’s inductees have given us all great gifts of their creative approaches to issues they saw on the Internet. We can take inspiration from them to tackle the next round of challenges.”
The 2019 inductees:
Adiel Akplogan (Africa) advanced the Internet in Africa and served as founding CEO of the Regional Internet Registry for Africa
Kimberly Claffy (United States) pioneered the field of Internet data collection, measurement and analysis
Douglas Comer (United States) wrote the first series of authoritative textbooks explaining the scientific principles of the Internet’s design and communications protocols
Elise Gerich (United States) was instrumental in the transition of the NSFNET to the modern-day Internet and the transition of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority functions from stewardship of the U.S. government to a multistakeholder community
Larry Irving (United States) was a driving force behind the identification of the Digital Divide in the U.S, igniting global interest in the issue
Dan Lynch (United States) drove adoption of TCP/IP protocols and played a key role in driving the Internet towards a commercial network
Jean Armour Polly (United States) pioneered free Internet access in public libraries
José Soriano (Peru) was a leader in bringing the Internet to Peru and designed a replicable “public Internet” model
Michael Stanton (Brazil) was instrumental in bringing the Internet to Brazil, and continues to participate in the design and deployment of scalable optical networks in South America and around the world
Klaas Wierenga (Netherlands) invented eduroam, an international Wi-Fi roaming service for academic and research communities in over 100 countries
Suguru Yamaguchi (Japan) was a cybersecurity research pioneer and global leader in its deployment; and founded Asia Pacific broadband Internet research and educational network project via satellite
This year is the first time the ceremony was held in Latin America. Costa Rica was chosen in particular to host the event because it has set a strong example for employing a collaborative approach to Internet governance, and taken systematic steps to close the country’s digital divide.
Learn more about each inductee’s contribution here.
Image Credit: Garrett Britton
