The man behind the Domain Name System has been awarded for his work. Paul Mockapetris is widely credited with coming up with DNS, 22 years ago. The chief scientist with net address firm Nominum was given a lifetime award by ACM Sigcomm, which recognises outstanding computer communications achievements.
Dr Mockapetris came up with the system while he was working at the University of Southern California. He told the BBC: "It"s a tremendous honour to be recognised by ACM Sigcomm and to stand alongside its other distinguished recipients. It is especially poignant to receive this award at a time when the internet is impacting on society like never before.
"While the internet has come a long way there is still much to do in terms of making the network more useful and secure," he added. Dr Mockapetris is also behind the original implementation of SMTP.