Radia Perlman Biography

Radia Perlman Radia Perlman is an American computer programmer and network engineer, who is mostly known for her work in network security. In 1985, while working for ‘Digital Equipment Corporation’ (DEC), she invented the ‘Spanning-Tree Protocol’ (STP), which became the base of network operations. The development of ‘STP’ brought her worldwide fame and made her name eternal in the field of internet. Perlman invented wireless network bridges, which transformed ethernet from a limited single-unit technology into a robust multi-unit one. Later, she developed a modified version of ‘STP,’ called the ‘Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links’ (TRILL), which is currently used by the majority of internet service providers. Her work in network security was pioneering at her time and has earned her the title “The Mother of the Internet.” In her career of nearly 40 years Perlman has worked for some of the biggest companies in the field of information technology, such as ‘DEC,’ ‘Sun Microsystems Inc.,’ ‘Intel Labs,’ and ‘DELL.’ She has also delivered lectures at prestigious universities such as ‘Harvard’ and ‘Massachusetts Institute of Technology’ (MIT). Apart from being a legendary computer scientist, Perlman enjoys reading literature, writing poetry, and playing the piano.