KC Claffy

Kimberly Claffy
Claffy speaking in 2019
Alma mater	Stanford University University of California, San Diego
Scientific career
Institutions	University of California, San Diego
Thesis	Internet traffic characterization(1994)

Kimberly C."KC"Claffyis director of the Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis at theUniversity of California, San Diego.In 2017 she was awarded theJonathan B. Postel Service Awardand inducted into theInternet Hall of Famein 2019.

Early life and education

Claffy studiedsymbolic systemsatStanford University.She earned her doctoral degree under the supervision of George Polyzos at theUniversity of California, San Diegoin 1994.Claffy was a summer intern atAT&T,Harry Diamond Laboratoriesand theFederal Reserve.Her years in graduate school occurred during the period in which thefederal government of the United Statesrelaxed control over the Internet. The Internet became a more commercial entity interconnecting a rapidly-increasing number of networks, hosts and users, and as the World Wide Web expanded, the nature of the traffic on the Internet changed.This inspired Claffy to develop initiatives that share Internet data and support Internet data analysis.

Research and career

Claffy was promoted to associate research scientist in 1994 and research scientist in 2007. In 1996 Claffy founded the Center for Applied Internet Data Analysis (CAIDA) in the supercomputing centre at theUniversity of California, San Diego.At the CAIDA Claffy works on internet cartography that characterises the changing nature ofInternet topologyandInternet trafficdynamics.This involves mapping and measuring internet data in an effort to make the internet safer for the general public.Claffy is part of theNamed Data Networkingproject.

In 2015, Claffy shared theIEEE Internet AwardwithVern Paxsonfor "seminal contributions to the field of Internet measurement, including security and network data analysis, and for distinguished leadership in and service to the Internet community by providing open-access data and tools".Her work established definitions for the concept of Internet "traffic flows", in which most packets flowing across the Internet are understood to be part of a connection with coherent characteristics, rather than isolated, unconnected messages.

In 2019, Claffy was inducted into theInternet Hall of Famefor her groundbreaking work in the field of internet measurement and analysis.She was awarded anNational Science FoundationConvergence Accelerator planning grant to evaluate the feasibility of creating anopen knowledgenetwork on the properties of the Internet identifier system.

Awards and honors

• 2000San Francisco Women on the WebTop 25 Women of the Web
• 2015IEEE Internet Award
• 2016 N2Women 10 Women in Networking/Communications That You Should Know
• 2017Internet SocietyJonathan B. Postel Service Award
• 2018 π Person of the Year
• 2019Internet Hall of Fame

Selected publications

• Claffy, KC (November 6, 2002). "Code-Red: A Case Study on the Spread and Victims of an Internet Worm".Proceedings of the 2nd ACM SIGCOMM Workshop on Internet Measurement.273–284.doi:10.1145/637201.637244.S2CID3981146.
• Claffy, KC (October 25, 2004). "Transport layer identification of P2P traffic".Proceedings of the 4th ACM SIGCOMM conference on Internet measurement.Vol. 121–134. p. 121.doi:10.1145/1028788.1028804.ISBN1581138210.S2CID1975295.
• Claffy, KC (November 24, 2003). "Bandwidth Estimation: Metrics, Measurement Techniques, and Tools".IEEE Network.27–35 (6): 27–35.doi:10.1109/MNET.2003.1248658.S2CID2285399.