Ronald V. Schmidt (March 31, 1944 – September 22, 2022) was an American

computer network A computer network is a collection of communicating computers and other devices, such as printers and smart phones. In order to communicate, the computers and devices must be connected by wired media like copper cables, optical fibers, or b ...

engineer. Schmidt was born in

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

. He graduated with B.S. (in 1966), M.S. (1968), and Ph.D. (1970) degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

. From 1970 to 1971 he was a postdoctoral research assistant at

University College, London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. He then joined

Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, commonly referred to as ''Bell Labs'', is an American industrial research and development company owned by Finnish technology company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, the company operates several lab ...

in 1971. He was hired by

Xerox PARC Future Concepts division (formerly Palo Alto Research Center, PARC and Xerox PARC) is a research and development company in Palo Alto, California. It was founded in 1969 by Jacob E. "Jack" Goldman, chief scientist of Xerox Corporation, as a div ...

to develop a version of

Ethernet Ethernet ( ) is a family of wired computer networking technologies commonly used in local area networks (LAN), metropolitan area networks (MAN) and wide area networks (WAN). It was commercially introduced in 1980 and first standardized in 198 ...

for

optical fiber An optical fiber, or optical fibre, is a flexible glass or plastic fiber that can transmit light from one end to the other. Such fibers find wide usage in fiber-optic communications, where they permit transmission over longer distances and at ...

in 1980 called Fibernet II. Schmidt co-founded SynOptics Communications in 1985 with

Andrew K. Ludwick Andrew K. Ludwick is an American entrepreneur and businessman who co-founder of SynOptics and was the CEO and President of SynOptics Communications and CEO and President of Bay Networks from 1985-1996. Before founding SynOptics in 1985, Ludwick ...

. After its merger in 1994, he served on the board of directors of the resulting company

Bay Networks Bay Networks, Inc., was a network hardware vendor formed through the merger of Santa Clara, California, based SynOptics Communications and Billerica, Massachusetts based Wellfleet Communications on July 6, 1994. SynOptics was an important early ...

starting in May 1996. Schmidt was executive vice president and chief technical officer ( CTO) of Bay Networks from 1994 to 1997. In 1998 he became a vice president of the Bell Labs research facility at Silicon Valley. He left Bell Labs in February 2000. He served on the board of directors of

Silicon Image Silicon Image Inc. was an American fabless semiconductor company based in Hillsboro, Oregon, and active from 1995 to 2015. The company designed circuits for mobile phones, consumer electronics and personal computers (PCs). It also manufactured wi ...

from April 1997 until April 2004. Schmidt cofounded the Flintridge & Portola Valley Railroad with Peter Mosley in 1991. Schmidt died on September 22, 2022, at his home in Portola Valley, California

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schmidt, Ronald V. American chief technology officers 2022 deaths 1944 births UC Berkeley College of Engineering alumni Scientists at PARC (company) Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Scientists at Bell Labs

See also

References