SIGCOMM Award Winner

Louis Pouzin
Consultant

Louis Pouzin is best known for his work as the inventor and advocate of "Datagrams", later extended and renamed connectionless communication, as the basic mode for the transmission of packets in a network. His ideas in this area paved the way for a new thread of thought on how to manage resources in networks, resulting in several major innovations, including today's ATM networks.

At the Institut de Recherche d'Informatique et d'Automatique (IRIA) in France in the 1970s, Louis directed the Cyclades project, which pioneered many networking concepts. During this period, Louis was a strong focal point for cooperation between research and industry, between Europe and North America, and between the computer community, the datacom community and the more traditional telecommunications community.

Louis has influenced many in the data and computer communication community either through direct relationships or through the many lectures, conferences and classes he has given for many years all around the world, as well as his numerous publications.

Louis served as a popular ACM lecturer for many years, and in the early 1990s served as Dean of Information Technology at THESEUS, a France Telecom institute providing MBA training for managers, with emphasis on information technology and network strategy. Louis' deep understanding of technical matters and how they combine with economic and/or political forces, his sometimes provocative way of questioning the politically correct evolution of our industry and his great sense of humor have characterized a lifetime contribution to the field.