Radia Perlman

Radia Joy Perlman is an American computer programmer and network engineer who is a major figure in assembling the networks and technology that became the Internet. She is most famous for inventing the Spanning Tree Protocol while working for Digital Equipment Corporation, fundamental to the operation of network bridges and the source of her nickname Mother of the Internet, a title she disliked; she also contributed to link-state routing protocols and later invented the TRILL protocol. Perlman was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2019, the Internet Hall of Fame in 2014 and the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2016, and holds more than 100 issued patents.