2005 award goes to pioneer behind development of the Internet in the Asia Pacific region
Reston, VA – 16th August 2005 – Professor Jun Murai is this year’s recipient of the Internet Society’s prestigious Jonathan B. Postel Service Award. The award recognizes Professor Murai’s vision and pioneering work that helped countless others to spread the Internet across the Asia Pacific region.
The Postel Award was presented during the 63rd meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in Paris, France by Daniel Karrenberg, chair of this year’s Postel award committee, and Lynn St. Amour, President and CEO of the Internet Society.
“Jun Murai has always encouraged, inspired and helped others, particularly his students and his colleagues in other parts of the Asia Pacific region,” said Karrenberg. “He has also played a key role in creating structures for Internet coordination in the region (particularly APNIC), and he is widely recognized for his recent pioneering work in IPv6 implementation.”
Jun Murai is currently Vice-President, Keio University in Japan, where he is a Professor in the Faculty of Environmental Information. In 1984, he developed the Japan University UNIX Network (JUNET), and in 1988 established the WIDE Project (a Japanese Internet research consortium) of which he continues to serve as the General Chairperson. He is President of the Japan Network Information Center (JPNIC), a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Internet Society and a former member of ICANN’s Board of Directors.
The Jonathan B. Postel Service Award was established by the Internet Society to honor those who have made outstanding contributions in service to the data communications community. The award is focused on sustained and substantial technical contributions, service to the community, and leadership. With respect to leadership, the nominating committee places particular emphasis on candidates who have supported and enabled others in addition to their own specific actions.
The award is named after Dr. Jonathan B. Postel, who embodied all of these qualities during his extraordinary stewardship over the course of a thirty-year career in networking. He served as the editor of the RFC series of notes from its inception in 1969, until 1998. He also served as the ARPANET “numbers Czar” and the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority over the same period of time. He was a founding member of the Internet Architecture Board and the first individual member of the Internet Society, where he also served as a trustee.
Previous recipients of the Postel Award include Jon himself (posthumously and accepted by his mother), Scott Bradner, Daniel Karrenberg, Stephen Wolff, Peter Kirstein and Phill Gross. The award consists of an engraved crystal globe and $20,000.
About Internet Society
The Internet Society is a not-for-profit membership organization founded in 1992 to provide leadership in Internet related standards, education, and policy. With offices in Washington, DC, and Geneva, Switzerland, it is dedicated to ensuring the open development, evolution and use of the Internet for the benefit of people throughout the world. Internet Society is the organizational home of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and other Internet-related bodies who together play a critical role in ensuring that the Internet develops in a stable and open manner. For over 13 years ISInternet Society has run international network training programmes for developing countries and these have played a vital role in setting up the Internet connections and networks in virtually every country connecting to the Internet during this time.
For further details
Peter Godwin
Communications Manager, Internet Society
E-mail: [email protected]
4, rue des Falaises
1205 Geneva
Switzerland