Vinton Cerf to talk about safety and security in a wired-up world

Vinton Cerf, who helped develop the Internet while at Stanford in the 1970s, will deliver the 2014 Drell Lecture at Stanford on Jan. 22. Now the vice president and chief Internet evangelist at Google, Cerf will talk about safety and security in a transnational environment.

Vinton Cerf, a pioneering computer scientist who helped launch the Internet, will talk at Stanford University on Jan. 22 about security in our highly wired, globalized world.

Cerf's talk, "Safety and Security in a Transnational World," is the 2014 installment of the Drell Lecture, which is sponsored by Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. The lecture is named for CISAC's co-founder, Sidney Drell.

The event will take place from 4:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Oak Lounge on the second floor of Tressider Memorial Union. The event is free and open to the media and public; no RSVP is required.

Cerf, who earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics at Stanford University, worked in the Silicon Valley computer industry before serving as an assistant professor at Stanford from 1972 to1976. During that time, he helped co-design the fundamental architecture underlying the Internet. In 1997, President Bill Clinton presented the U.S. National Medal of Technology to Cerf and his colleague, Robert E. Kahn, for founding and developing the Internet. Since 2005, Cerf has worked as the vice president and chief Internet evangelist for Google.

Cerf's lecture will include moderated questions and will be live-streamed online at www.ustream.tv/channel/stanford-cisac. CISAC will also be live-tweeting during the event and you can follow the conversation at #VintCerfFSI.

Clifton B. Parker is a writer for the Stanford News Service.