Oral history interview with David L. Mills by Andrew L. Russell

Abstract

Internet pioneer David L. Mills discusses his career working with computers at the intersections of academia, government, and private industry. Mills earned his Ph.D. in Computer and Communication Sciences at the University of Michigan in 1971, and then worked at the University of Maryland (1972-77), COMSAT Corporation (1977-82), and Linkabit Corporation (1982-1986) before joining the faculty of the University of Delaware in 1986. Dr. Mills invented the Network Time Protocol, chaired the Internet Architecture Task Force, and made many other significant contributions to the development of packet-switched networks and the Internet. Major topics and themes of the interview include: the evolution of the Internet standards process, the social and cultural aspects of the ARPANET and Internet research communities, international collaborations and tensions within computer networking communities in the 1970s and 1980s, the Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile (GOSIP), and his interactions with colleagues including Vinton Cerf, David D. Clark, Jon Postel, Peter Kirstein, and David Farber.