Dr. W. David Sincoskie

Dr. W. David Sincoskie, age 55, of Hockessin, DE and formerly of Hampton, NJ, died Wednesday, October 20, at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, MD. Walter David Sincoskie, son of the late Walter J. and Lillian Sincoskie, was born December 21, 1954. Raised in Delaware, Dave went on to receive Bachelors, Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Electrical Engineering from the University of Delaware. While in graduate school, Dave married JoAnn Schmidt of Hockessin, DE in 1979. After graduation in 1980, Dave and JoAnn moved to New Jersey, where Dave worked for Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill This began a long and distinguished career in communication research. From 1986 to 1995, Dr. Sincoskie led the world’s leading switching research organization at Bellcore which spearheaded the telecommunications transition from circuit-switching to packet-switching, a key factor in the successful commercialization of the Internet. From 1996 to 2008, he was Senior Vice President of Telcordia’s Networking Systems Laboratory where, among other achievements, he pioneered the creation of Internet Telephony. He made many seminal contributions to the science and technologies of communications networks, including the first voice-over-packet phone, first virtual LAN, first description of a digital video server and first wide-area gigabit computer network. During these years he was also an Adjunct Professor of Computer and Information Science at the University of Pennsylvania. As a Special Government Employee since 2002, he advised Senior Executives within the DoD. Over his career, Dave remained very involved with the University of Delaware, and was elected to the UD Alumni Wall of Fame in 2006. He returned to the university in 2008 as a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. There he established the Center for Information and Communications Sciences to help address National Security issues and served as its Director. Author of numerous papers and co-inventor on many patents, Dr. Sincoskie was a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the IEEE. He received the IEEE’s Fred W. Ellersick Prize (2003) for his paper, “Broadband Packet Switching: A Personal Perspective,� which detailed his research contributions over two decades to the development of today’s broadband Internet. He was a member of Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu. His public service included the National Academies Board on Army Science and Technologies, the Army Lab Assessment Group, DARPA’s Information Sciences and Technology group, five National Research Council panels and the Internet Architecture Board. Dave and his wife loved to travel both internationally and in the U.S. He was an avid golfer and played often with friends and associates. He and his wife supported several animal shelter organizations. He is survived by his beloved wife of 31 years. In lieu of flowers, the family would prefer donations to a memorial scholarship fund to honor Dr. Sincoskie. Gifts should be sent to 011 Hullihen Hall, University of Delaware, Newark, DE and marked “To ECE Scholarship in memory of Dave Sincoskie�.