Penn Engineering's Net expert Farber appointed to FCC

January 11, 2000

As reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Dave Farber has been appointed the chief technologist at the Federal Communications Commission. He will be on leave from his postion as Engineering's Alfred Fitler Moore Professor of Telecommunication Systems while on the governmental commission. This position is traditionally a one- or two-year appointment held by a scholar. The post will put Farber in a position to influence policymaking at the FCC, the government body that regulates the telephone, broadcasting and cable industries, and one day, perhaps, the Internet. A pioneer of the Internet, he has a long history of groundbreaking work in both the telecommunications and computer sciences world.

The January Almanac quoted William Kennard, chairman of the FCC, as saying "...the FCC, and, indeed, the entire country, are very fortunate to have the services of such a distinguished, world-class technology expert as Dave Farber at this time, as the FCC continues to tackle the complicated and increasingly technical issues involved in ensuring universal broadband access." Farber worked on some of the first computer networks, including CSNet, which linked computer-science departments at about 500 colleges and universities, as well as other networks that later became integrated into the Internet.

For more information about Dave Farber, visit his website at http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~farber