After his dreams of becoming a physicist were dashed, Paul Mockapetris moved to Southern California to pursue a Ph.D. in information and computer science. There, he discovered a profound love for computers and a talent for innovative problem-solving that would set the stage for his major contributions to the digital age.

As a young researcher at ISI eager to prove himself, he was handed the daunting task of finding a solution to manage the growing number of IP addresses on the ARPANET. Undeterred, Mockapetris developed the Domain Name System (DNS), an invention that revolutionized the Internet and made possible the existence of familiar web addresses like google.com. His work laid the foundation for the vast, interconnected digital world we navigate today.