The Internet Society has awarded the Jonathan B. Postel Service Award to Rob Blokzijl, Ph.D. for his tireless labor and over 25 years as the Founding Member, and Retired Chair (retired in May 2014) at (Réseaux IP Européens] aka RIPE. That work coupled with the critically important labor of assisting other European policy makers, engineers and scientists to spread the Internet across Europe informed the selection of Dr. Blokzijl!.

'During the 1980s, Dr. Blokzijl was active in building networks for the particle physics community in Europe. Through his experience at the National Institute for Nuclear and High Energy Physics (NIKHEF) and CERN, he recognized the power of collaborating with others building networks for research and travelled worldwide to promote cooperation across networkers. In the 1990s, Dr. Blokzijl was influential in the creation of the Amsterdam Internet Exchange, one of the first in Europe. His most widely recognized contribution is as founding member and 25-year chairman of RIPE, the European open forum for IP networking. Dr. Blokzijl was also instrumental in the creation of RIPE NCC in 1992, the first Regional Internet Registry in the world.' - via the Internet Society