Perlman, Samuelson, Tsao, honored for innovations

PALO ALTO, Calif. — One of Sun Microsystem's top engineers was honored Tuesday (Oct. 18) by the Anita Borg Institute for Woman and Technology for her work in technological innovation, organizers announced.

Radia Perlman, senior distinguished engineer at Sun, was honored along with Pamela Samuelson of the University of California at Berkeley and Janie Tsao, Cisco Systems Inc., with the 2005 Women of Vision awards The awards were in the categories of innovation, social impact and leadership, respectively. The award winners were scheduled to be honored Tuesday night at a dinner here.

Perlman was honored for innovations in networking security, routing technologies and other contributions critical to the workings and expansion of the Internet. Among these is her invention of the Spanning Tree Algorithm, a ubiquitous formula used by bridges and routers to make Internet links more efficient.

The author of two widely used textbooks and numerous technical papers, Perlman has been recognized by Data Communications magazine as one of the 20 most influential people in information technology. Perlman received her Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Samuelson, who was recognized in the social impact category, will be honored for her work at the forefront of legal issues in the Internet Age. Widely published in the areas of copyright, software protection and cyber-law, she is credited with innovative thinking about the challenges that new information technologies pose for traditional legal systems on both a practical and constitutional level.

Tsao, senior vice president of worldwide sales, marketing and business development for Cisco's Linksys Division, was honored in the leadership category. Tsao was a co-founder of Linksys in 1988, driving the company’s growth from start-up to market leader prior to its acquisition by Cisco in 2003 for $500 million.