Born in Beijing in 1934, Hu Qiheng worked in the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the 1980s, as the Institute of Automation’s director in 1983, as secretary general of the Academy as a whole in 1987, and as its vice president in 1988. It was her convincing that led to China’s connection to the Internet in 1994.
Hu is one of China’s foremost artificial intelligence researchers, and helped established the Internet Society of China, which she led with the hope of further integrating China with the Internet.
She has also served as president of the China Automation Society and the China Computer Society.
In 2013, Hu was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame. She is a member of ICANN’s Internationalized Domain Names Committee and the Working Group on Internet Governance.
More on Hu:
Internet Hall of Fame