Brief Bio

Thomas C. Jacobson

Tom has been involved with the design of networking hardware, software, and Internet development for over 40 years. After early work in atmospheric physics and designing and building mini and microcomputer hardware, he built the first TCP/IP networks in Minnesota, pioneered supercomputer-workstation interworking, and helped guide the development of the first Internet browser (Gopher). He founded one of the original NSF regional networks (MRNet) and participated in the development of NSFNet. He co-founded Internet-Way (now UUNet France) in Paris. At Loral/Orion in Washington DC he guided the development of DVB satellite based data broadcasting services. At Skystream in California he worked on advanced satellite coding, content security, and Internet architecture, and was a member of the Technical Advisory Board. At Frontier he led the development and demonstration of next gen ABR streaming video architecture. He is currently interested in the web based video-on-demand paradigm shift, high efficiency video coding, interoperable open content security, and satellite based multicast content delivery for distance education. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota, and has also attended Stanford and the University of Oslo. His wife is an oceanographic researcher who lives in France. He has a daughter who recently graduated from Oxford and teaches in Boston.