News for and about the Internet2 community

[Glenn Lipscomb <>]

Internet2 Mourns the Loss of Internet Visionary Doug Gale

 

Doug Gale, widely known throughout the research and education community and an early developer of the Research and Education networks as we know them today, passed away October 26.    

 

Gale has a long history of leading and supporting research and academic missions and was instrumental in developing the first white paper that eventually lead to the formation of Internet2.   Gale served as the editor of the Monterrey Futures Group White Paper on the Technical Requirements for the Virtual University, which served as the original requirements document for the creation of Internet2.

 

“Our community has lost a person who was in many ways the heart and soul of the early development of research and education networks,” said David Lambert, President and CEO of Internet2. “Doug was one of the most remarkable people I have ever met and his contributions will undoubtedly leave a lasting and impressionable mark on many individuals and organizations. His commitment, post retirement, to preservation of the history of the development of the Internet leaves a lasting legacy of his contributions. On behalf of Internet2, I express our deepest condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. He will be greatly missed.” 

 

In 2010, Gale founded the Internet Legacy Institute to preserve and archive information and original source materials about the creation and evolution of the Internet.  Prior to that, he was President of Information Technology Associates, LLC, where he provided consulting for higher education and information technology projects. 

 

Throughout his long career, Gale also served the community in various roles including Director of OARnet, the Ohio Academic Resources Network, and as the Assistant Vice President for Information Systems and Services at George Washington University, where he was responsible for academic and administrative computing, as well as telecommunications and networking.   

 

Gale served on the Board of Trustees for the Corporation for Research and Education Networking (CREN), and was on the Board of Directors and served as treasurer of CAUSE prior to its merger with EDUCOM. In addition, he was the principle investigator on a grant from the National Science Foundation to create the Washington Research and Education Network.

 

Before his work at George Washington in 1995, Gale was Director of Computing, and a tenured Professor in both Physics and Computer Science at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. There he was a principle investigator, founder and President of MIDnet, one of the first regional networks in the NSFNET, which became today’s Internet.

 

Between 1990-1991, Gale was on leave from the University of Nebraska, serving as the Program Officer for the NSFNET Program at the National Science Foundation in Washington, DC. While at the NSF, he received the NSF Director’s Award for Program Officer Excellence. Doug has a B.S. in Physics and Math from the University of Kansas, an M.S. in Physics from the University of Minnesota, and a Ph.D. in Physics from Kansas State University.