RADIA PERLMAN PROFESSIONAL

At Sun Labs it's nice if we do things that make the company money but it's also nice if we change the world. Or I meet two groups that ought to know each other and I introduce them. I enjoy talking to various groups in and out of Sun to find out what they're doing and often it intrigues me with some problem that needs to be solved. The job is not that well defined so I get to kind of do whatever I want. What exactly does a distinguished engineer do? What aspects of being female are important for this position?' I can't walk in heels, I have no clothing sense, and I'm not particularly decorative. Although my credentials as a thought leader are impeccable, I must warn you that I am not that qualified as a female. Recently a recruiter for a company sent me e-mail saying 'We are particularly interested in you as a female thought leader.' I didn't reply, because I wasn't interested in a job, but I fantasized replying: 'Thank you for your interest.

RADIA PERLMAN PROFESSIONAL

I cringe when people emphasize my gender, because it's really a very small part of my life, especially my professional life.

ThatвЂ™s kind of a strange marketing sound bite. What more could a networking editor ask for? One week I get to see Tim Berners-Lee, the Father of the Web, and the next week I get to meet with the Mother of the Internet. But when I met with her recently at a security event in Boston I wanted to know this: What have you done for us lately? Network World even singled her out in March as one of 20 people who changed the industry over the past 20 years. Others know her as the author of network textbooks such as Interconnections. Some people refer to Sun Labs distinguished engineer Radia Perlman as the Mother of the Internet and the creator of the spanning tree algorithm used by bridges and switches.

Radia perlman