Leading the Next Era of Internet2
A Q&A with Tripti Sinha
October marks the completion of Tripti Sinha's first year as president and CEO of Internet2. It is also Internet2's 30th anniversary, a milestone Sinha shares with the nonprofit networking and technology leader — She has been an active member of the Internet2 R&E community since its beginning, helping shape Internet2's foundational years, serving 30 years as an R&E community member (most recently as CTO at the University of Maryland), and shepherding Internet2's growing reach throughout the global R&E community today.
Here, we ask Sinha about meeting with the Internet2 membership and R&E community — but now as CEO; the achievement of this past year's strategic planning process; and the coming breakthrough technologies that she personally is most excited about as she leads Internet2 into the future.
Mary Grush: This month, October 2026, marks 30 years since the beginning of Internet2, an organization you helped shape and guide through those many years. And this week, on October 15th, it will be exactly one year since you took the helm as Internet2's CEO. What's in the nature of Internet2 that has made it research and education's trusted hyperscale backbone and a global R&E community leader?
Tripti Sinha: Internet2 was founded during a pivotal moment in the mid-'90s, shortly after the retirement of NSFNET, a National Science Foundation initiative that connected regional research networks with the nation's high-performance computing centers. And as the world recognized its power, the Internet started to become commercialized.
Higher education institutions came together and said, "Wait a minute! We don't want to use commercial infrastructure." Higher education required its own network backbone to serve the unique needs of research and education. That's the real story and genesis of Internet2.
So Internet2 began as a national backbone for research and education. But much has happened from the time it was first conceived to what it is today.
Internet2 began as a national backbone for research and education. But much has happened from the time it was first conceived to what it is today.
When Internet2 started, 30-some research universities came together to create a network exclusively for the nation's academic and scientific communities. Today, we serve not only universities, but also federal agencies, national labs, industry partners, and research partners. As of this publication date, we now have 517 Internet2 members, of which 352 are higher education members. Plus, there are 23 nonprofit affiliates, 34 federal affiliates, 62 industry members, and 46 regional R&E network members.
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