Network World, 01/04/99

DAVID FARBER PROFESSOR OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS SYSTEMS, UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA

This is a Renaissance man, indeed.

David Farber is a faculty member of the Computer and Information Science and Electrical Engineering departments at the University of Pennsylvania, teaches in the school's new Telecommunications and Networking master's program and serves on the faculty council of the SEI Center for Advanced Studies in Management at the Wharton School. He's also director of the Distributed Computer Laboratory, where his cutting-edge research on high-speed networking has brought him a great deal of visibility in the industry.

As if all those academic duties weren 't challenging enough, consider that Farber is also on the board of directors for the Electronic Frontier Foundation and is a member of the board of trustees for the Internet Society. Oh yes, Farber is also an advisory board member of the Center for Democracy and Technology, he's given 10 years of service to the National Research Council's Computer Science and Telecommunications Board, he's involved in the Internet2 effort and, piling up the credentials, he's a fellow of the IEEE.

Did we mention that in his spare time Farber serves on the industrial advisory boards of AT&T, Earthlink, Covad Communications, Torrent and Metricom, among other companies? And that he runs the widely read and respected Interesting People mailing list on the 'Net, where he opines about people, technology and politics?

Along with his advanced thinking on networks, Farber has his Farberisms - unique twists of speech, including, "A lot of these arguments are fetious" and "Come down off your charlie horse." (Find a whole list at www.cis.upenn.edu/~farber/farism.htm.)

FARBER'S CHALLENGE: One of the most gifted and outspoken people in the field, Farber is shaping the thinking of key people in the industry. But his job may be the toughest anyone faces - training the next generation of leaders for the network industry. It's difficult to think of someone better qualified for the task.

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