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Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020

NSFNET 35th
Anniversary Celebratory
Virtual Event

Thank You for Joining Us

Internet2 and the Internet Society were excited to bring you a celebratory virtual event to commemorate the 35th anniversary of NSFNET. View the recording of the event.

The December 8 special program featured luminaries and colleagues from research and education as they reflected on NSFNET’s important networking contributions and shared their outlook for the future. View biographies of the event’s speakers, which include former Vice President Al Gore and Vint Cerf, VP and Chief Internet Evangelist for Google.

In the United States, the National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) program, established in 1985, was a pivotal program that laid the foundation of the global internet. NSFNET was the first nationwide physical network in the US for the support of research and higher education. It connected supercomputing centers, regional research and education networks, federal agency networks, and international research and education networks from 1985-1995. View a timeline marking key milestones in the history of internet development, including ARPANET, NSFNET, and Internet2.


View Recording

Program

Tuesday, December 8, 2020Program
1 pm ESTWelcome
Ana Hunsinger, Vice President, Community Engagement, Internet2
1:05 pm ESTReflections in History
A Conversation Between Vint Cerf and Al Gore
1:20 pm ESTThe NSFNET Program
Dennis Jennings, former First Program Director for Networking, NSF
Hear how the NSFNET Program and the key decisions made that underpinned the success of that program and led to the global Internet.
1:35 pm ESTInternet2: Supporting the Research and Education Community – Then, Now and Into the Future
Howard Pfeffer, President and CEO, Internet2
As Internet2 is entering its 25th year supporting the technology, infrastructure and service needs of research and education, Internet2 President and CEO Howard Pfeffer will reflect on the importance of NSFNET in the creation of the global Internet and how that served as a catalyst to the creation of Internet2. Pfeffer will discuss his observations on working with the R&E community today.
1:50 pm ESTBuilding, Defending, and Promoting the Internet through the Internet Society
Andrew Sullivan, CEO, Internet Society
The Internet is clearly now a critical resource for global society, yet decades in and still half of humanity is deprived of the opportunities that Internet connectivity offers. Now, more than ever, powerful forces and frustrated governments seek to mold the Internet to their own wishes and devices, threatening the most generative, innovative, and human technology ever invented. At the Internet Society we focus on growing and strengthening the Internet, and we will talk about the critical areas we see for the future of the Internet, tomorrow or 35 years from now.
2:05 pm ESTNational Research Cloud: The Next NSFNET?
Margaret Martonosi, Assistant Director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) at NSF
Just as NSFNET interconnected many points of research and infrastructure together nationally, we have an opportunity now to broaden access to a rich federation of NSF‑supported and other research resources. This talk will give a sketch of that vision, grounded in current NSF activities.
2:20 pm ESTModerated Panel Session
Dennis Jennings, Howard Pfeffer, Andrew Sullivan, and Margaret Martonosi will address questions from the audience. Please send any questions to meetings@internet2.edu. We encourage you to submit your question(s) as soon as possible. We anticipate receiving a high volume of questions from event participants and will do our best to share questions with the moderator as time allows.
2:45 pm ESTClose

Event Organizers

The NSFNET 35th Anniversary Celebratory Event was organized by the Internet Society and Internet2.