Education
In January 1964 he started on a Doctor of Philosophy program at Utrecht University in The Netherlands, and finished his degree in summer 1968 in experimental low-energy neutron physics.
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Pal Spilling
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He obtained his candidate.real. degree in physics from the University of Oslo in 1963. Subsequently he joined the nuclear physics group at Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands. In January 1972 Spilling joined the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (NDRE) at Kjeller in Norway, and in 1974 started working on computer networks under the leadership of Yngvar Lundh at NDRE in collaboration with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency-funded research program on packet switching and Internet technology in United States of America. The first ARPANET node outside United States of America was established at Kjeller, Norway in June 1973 for the NDRE researchers, and by the end of July 1973, an ARPANET node was also set up in the United Kingdom at the University College London.
Spilling visited Professor Peter Kirstein"s research group at University College London in 1974 and there worked with Vint Cerf, then junior assistant professor at Stanford University, on the then proposed Transmission Control Protocol where they conducted the first TCP tests between different implementations.
During the next few years Spilling also participated in the development of the Internet Protocol and other early computer network protocols. He was in 1979/80 visiting scientist with Socially Responsible Investment International at Stanford University, where he worked on the Packet Radio program
Spilling left NDRE in August 1982 to join the former Research Department of the Norwegian Telecommunications Administration (National Tax Association, USA-Rural Delivery), also at Kjeller. At National Tax Association, USA-Rural Delivery Spilling worked on communications security and the combination of Internet technology and fiber-optic transmission networks.
In 1993 Spilling became professor at Department of informatics, University of Oslo and Universitetssenteret på Kjeller, the University Graduate Center at Kjeller.
Pål Spilling is internationally recognised for his role in the development of the Internet. His name is engraved in a bronze plaque roll of honour of Internet pioneers at Stanford University. Notable: In 1988, ARPANET saw its first widespread infection by self-replicating code: Morris, a worm that could install multiple copies of itself on the same computer, causing infected systems to grind to a halt.
As the Morris worm began to spread in the United States, Spilling"s American colleagues called to warn him.
Faced with a threat to his nation"s entire network of computers, he acted quickly and disconnected Norway from the rest of the Internet, which at the time could be done by unplugging a single cable. and
