The Promise of Green Technologies

This is the College of Engineering's Goff Smith Lecture.

Part of the magic of this digital age has been the ability to connect a number of computers in a network and share information. The first Internet – a vast web of computers – was clumsy and limited until 1984, when the University of California at Berkeley released a new version of UNIX (4.2BSD) that included a complete implementation of the TCP/IP networking protocols — conventions that became the backbone of the modern Internet. Bill Joy (BSE CompE 75, D.Eng. hon. 04) designed that new version of UNIX. He went on to co-found Sun Microsystems where, years later in 1995, he unveiled Java, another programming language of his design. Java harnesses the power of the Internet and plays a major role in bringing the Web to life — the program has been integral to the development of Internet business. Joy has 44 patents issued or in progress, is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the Computer Museum Industry Hall of Fame. In recognition of his outstanding contributions, Joy received the Computerworld Smithsonian Award for Innovation in 1999 and the PC Magazine 1999 Lifetime Achievement Award. Fortune magazine has called him the "edison of the Internet."