Robert Morris

Robert Tappan Morris is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at MIT CSAIL in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He holds an AB and a PhD in Computer Science from Harvard University and initially gained prominence in 1988 for creating the Morris worm, the first computer worm deployed on the Internet. Transitioning into technology entrepreneurship, Morris co-founded the pioneering web application company Viaweb alongside Paul Graham, and later co-founded the global startup accelerator Y Combinator. Returning to academia, he has focused extensively on computer systems research, releasing the Arc programming language in 2008 and receiving the SIGOPS Mark Weiser Award in 2010 for his technical contributions. His current academic focus centers on distributed systems, operating systems, and computer networks, leading research projects such as Chord and Roofnet while teaching advanced engineering courses to undergraduate and graduate students.