Perlman was one among the 50 or so women students at MIT in the late 60s, in a class of about 1,000 students. She earned her PhD in Computer Science from MIT in 1988. Perlman was working at Digital Equipment Corp in 1980 when she developed the Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), which allows a network to deliver data reliably by making it possible to design the network with redundant links. This protocol is still in use today. Her work has been described as having put the “basic traffic rules into place” for the Internet. She holds over 100 issued patents and has received numerous accolades and awards in recognition of her contributions to technology, including being inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame in 2016.
Learn more at the Internet Hall of Fame.