Eric Smith

Eric started working in the networking field while studying Computer Science at Duquesne University, mostly fixing issues reported by students and faculty. After graduating in 2001, he started his fulltime career in network engineering at Alcoa, working on their global WAN with a focus on network security and merging recently-acquired networks into Alcoa's network.

After that, Eric shifted his career focus to the research and education community, working extended stints at both Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Oregon. Large-scale projects at those institutions ranged from building an MPLS-driven campus-wide network to implementing datacenter redesigns (including SDN-based networking, load-balancing, and specialized firewall designs). In parallel, Eric also worked on the Routeviews project, deploying BGP route collectors at various exchanges around the globe.

Eric joined ESnet in March of 2019 and started working on the ESnet6 project, most notably the RFP, planning, and rollout of the ESnet6 routing platform. In parallel, Eric worked with ESnet's software engineering team to implement network orchestration and automation on ESnet6. Eric continues to contribute to both the core routing and automation network engineering teams at ESnet in a technical leadership role on the Engineering & Automation Tools team.

When he wanders away from his computer monitors, Eric enjoys rock climbing, camping, playing guitar, going to see live music, travel, and (astro)photography.