MARINA DEL REY, Calif.: Former ICANN Board member NiiQuaynor has received the Internet Society's Jonathan B. Postel Service Award,better known simply as the Postel Award, for his pioneering work in Africa.
Dr Quaynor received the award on stage from Internet Society (ISOC) presidentLynn St. Amour at the 70th Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) meeting inVancouver on 5 December for his "leadership in advancing Internet technologyin Africa and galvanizing technologists to improve Internet access and capabilitiesthroughout the continent."
The annual award is named after Internet pioneer and stalwart Dr. JonathanB. Postel. There have been 10 recipients of the award since 1999, and the awardis designed to honor those that have made outstanding contributions in serviceto the data communications community.
Dr Quaynor said of receiving the award: "I am humbled by the award andwhat Jon Postel represents to our community in Africa. Jon Postel's effortsand the global view he maintained on the operation of the domain name systemand the numbering services assured that Africa would share in the Internetgrowth and early. I thank the Internet Society for the recognition and am verypleased to be associated with Jon's memorial."
"We will work to develop more African engineers to meet the fast networkgrowth needs of the region, being a late starter, and to join the technicalpolicy processes. Our overall objective is to strengthen education and researchin network technologies in Africa."
ICANN president and CEO, Dr Paul Twomey, lent his congratulations to thecommunity's.
"I'm delighted to see that Nii has been honored in this way for allthe hard work and dedication he has shown over the years," Dr Twomey said."As a Board member, he contributed greatly to the organization's understandingof the issues faced by the African continent when it comes to the Internetâ€" issues that we continue to face every day."
Dr. Quaynor is chairman of Network Computer Systems (NCS) Ghana.com and aprofessor of computer science at University of Cape-Coast, Ghana. He is alsothe convener of the African Network Operators Group (AfNOG), a network technologytransfer institution since 2000 and the founding chairman of AfriNIC, the Africannumbers registry.
He served as ICANN's At-Large Director for the African region between October2000 and June 2003.
Full details on the award are available at http://www.isoc.org/isoc/media/releases/071205pr.shtml
About ICANN:
ICANN is responsible for the global coordination of the Internet's systemof unique identifiers like domain names (like .org, .museum and country codeslike .uk) and the addresses used in a variety of Internet protocols that helpcomputers reach each other over the Internet. Careful management of these resourcesis vital to the Internet's operation, so ICANN's global stakeholders meet regularlyto develop policies that ensure the Internet's ongoing security and stability.ICANN is an internationally organized, public benefit non-profit company. Formore information please visit: www.icann.org.
Media Contacts:
Jason Keenan
Media Adviser, ICANN
Ph: +1 310 382 4004
E: jason.keenan@icann.org
