• 1943 August 06
    (b.) -
    1998 October 16
    (d.)

Bio/Description

While at UCLA, he was involved in early work on the ARPANET; he later moved to the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California, where he spent the rest of his career. Postel served on the Internet Architecture Board and its predecessors for many years. He was the Director of the names and number assignment clearinghouse, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), from its inception. He was the first member of the Internet Society, and was on the Board of Trustees of the Internet Society. He was the original and long-time .us Top-Level Domain administrator. He also managed the Los Nettos Network. Perhaps his most famous legacy is from RFC 793, which includes a Robustness Principle which is often labeled Postel's Law: "be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others" (often reworded as "be conservative in what you send, liberal in what you accept"). In digital circuits, this principle has long been an important aspect of what is known as the static discipline.
  • Date of Birth:

    1943 August 06
  • Date of Death:

    1998 October 16
  • Gender:

    Male
  • Noted For:

    Significant contributor to development of the Internet
  • Category of Achievement:

  • More Info: