Vern Edward Paxson is a professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He also leads the Networking and Security Group at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, California. His interests range from transport protocols to intrusion detection and worms. He is an active member of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) community and served as the chair of the IRTF from 2001 until 2005. From 1998 to 1999 he served on the IESG as Transport Area Director for the IETF.