Bill Joy, who designed and wrote Berkeley UNIX, called the backbone of the Internet, will present the 2009 Goff Smith lecture at 4 p.m. Thursday in the Penny and Roe Stamps Auditorium, adjacent to the Charles R. Walgreen, Jr. Drama Center.
As chief scientist of Sun Microsystems, Joy was a key designer of Sun technologies including Solaris, chip architectures and Java. His many contributions were recognized in a Fortune cover story that called the Sun Microsystems co-founder the “Edison of the Internet.” His talk is on “The Promise of Green Technologies.”
Joy has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from U-M, a master’s degree in computer science from the University of California and a doctorate in engineering from U-M.
The Goff Smith Prize is the highest external honor bestowed by the College of Engineering. Smith served the university with distinction for more than 70 years. As president of the engineering Class of 1938, he was instrumental in creating the 1938E Award, bestowed annually to an outstanding junior faculty member to recognize universal high achievement in science and engineering that justly serves as an inspiration to the college community.
A reception will follow the lecture in Tishman Hall in the Computer Science and Engineering Building on North Campus.
