Radia Perlman's work has had a profound impact on the field of networking. She was recently featured in the 25th anniversary edition of Data Communications magazine as one of the 25 people whose work has most influenced the industry. She is the creator of the spanning tree algorithm upon which bridges (switches) are based, and the algorithms that allow robust and efficient link state routing, upon which all modern link state routing protocols (such as IS-IS, OSPF, and PNNI) are based. Radia designed IS-IS, Simple Multicast, and sabotage-proof routing. She is also co-author of Network Security: Private Communication in a Public World. Both of her books were listed in the top 10 most useful networking reference books in the March, 1988 issue of Network Magazine. She is currently a Distinguished Engineer at Sun Microsystems, Inc. She holds about 50 patents and a Ph.D. from M.I.T.

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