Andrew Lippman heads the Lab's Viral Communications program, which examines scalable, real-time networks whose capacity increases with the number of members. This new approach to telephony, sensor interconnection, and broadcasting transfers "mainframe communications" technology to distributed, personally defined, cooperative communicators. Lippman established and directs the Digital Life consortium, which focuses on both technical invention and human understanding, and works to create a networked world where communication becomes fully embedded in our daily lives. He is on sabbatical for the 2007-08 academic year, and is currently a visiting fellow at Nortel.

Lippman has a more than 35-year history at MIT. His work at the Media Lab has ranged from wearable computers to global digital television, and he has directed research programs on digital pictures, personal computers, entertainment, and graphics. He has served on advisory boards of technology start-ups, and currently, he is on the science councils of both non-profit and for-profit companies addressing global information infrastructures. He received both his BS and MS in electrical engineering from MIT, and his PhD from Switzerland's EPFL.

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