Vinton Cerf's Life And Accomplishments

Vinton Cerf was born as an only child to Vinton Thurston Cerf and Muriel Cerf on June 23, 1943 (Who Is Vint Cerf? Everything You Need to Know). While he has been quiet about most of his childhood, it is known that he grew up in New Haven, Connecticut, following the path created by his father, an aerospace executive. Eventually they moved across the country to southern California. Throughout his childhood, Cerf experienced progressive hearing loss. At age 13, he was fitted with his very first pair of hearing aids (Jerome). Despite his hearing loss, Vinton Cerf was a successful engineer, professor, and husband, and he eventually became known as the Father of the Internet. Vinton Cerf never let his hearing loss effect his goals. He followed his father’s footsteps in valuing education, as he graduated as the valedictorian of his high school class (Jerome). Moving on from the trivial life of high school, Cerf focused on pursuing his education by attending Stanford and earning a degree in mathematics, followed by studying computer programming at the University of California, Los Angeles, or UCLA, in 1967 (Jerome).

While attending Stanford University, Vinton met Robert E. Kahn. They parted ways after graduation, but the pair soon returned to Stanford, Cerf as a professor, and they began their work on a summer project that would change the world (Hafner). They spent countless hours debating, arguing, and challenging each other, until they eventually emerged, creating the essential foundations of the Internet we all know and love today. Alongside his world-renown work on the Internet, Cerf worked on hundreds of projects. Most notably, he assisted the United States Department of Defense on multiple projects, including cyber security and the national information infrastructure (Dennis). He played one of the largest roles in the creation and continued development in the world’s largest form of