Biography

David P. Reed's research focuses on designing systems that manage, communicate, and manipulate information shared among people. He is best known for co-developing the Internet design principle known as the "end-to-end argument" (with MIT professors J.H. Saltzer and David D. Clark), and "Reed's Law," which describes the economics of group formation in networks. Reed, with Andrew Lippman, developed the Lab's Viral Communications program; with Lippman, David D. Clark, and Charles Fine he helped to create the Communications Futures Program. Reed is a member of Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, where he is an HP Fellow.

Reed's career spans both computing R&D and academia. As a vice president of R&D and chief scientist at two pioneering personal computer software companies—Software Arts, Inc. and Lotus Development Corporation—he led new product innovations and strategic technology efforts; in addition, he was a senior scientist at Interval Research Corporation, and advisor to major companies and startup ventures on their technology and business strategy. Throughout this time he also pursued personal research in radio networking, distributed computing architecture, and Internet business economics. In the academic world, Reed was a faculty member in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), and worked in the Laboratory for Computer Science (LCS). He also earned his BS, MS, EE, and PhD degrees in EECS while conducting research at LCS and its predecessor, Project MAC.