Meet the 2021 Fellows
Training
Musa Stephen Honlue (AFRINIC LTD) is a Network and Systems Engineer with 15 years of experience managing networks and sharing knowledge on the best possible ways to improve networks and make the Internet more secure and more accessible to all. As trainer/instructor, he has served AFRINIC, Internet Society, AFNOG, CISCO networking academy, and the University of Dschang.
Ben Kyemba Kitimbo (Research and Education Network for Uganda (RENU)) is an experienced trainer on campus network design and security best practices. He has deployed full dual stack IPv6, implemented MANRS procedures and BGP security at RENU. Ben is also an active member of the IETF v6ops working group and the Internet Society where he recently represented Uganda at the 2020 global volunteer training program, and created a demonstration video about BGP/Prefix hijacking scenario. He is a JNCIS-SP certified specialist and is currently engaged in active research on the analysis of human EMF exposure in 5G cellular systems.
Naveen Karaparambil Lakshman (Graphite Networks) is a Solutions Architect based in India. He has worked on Cisco, Juniper, Microtik networks devices, and SD-WAN products like Silver Peak, Cisco/Viptela, Versa, Velocloud, 128T. His expertise includes planning, designing, and implementation of IPv6, SD-WAN, SDN solutions for enterprise/SMB customers. He assists customers in presales consulting, network re-design, and setting up a proof of concept. His core areas of interest are in BGP, MPLS/VPN, E-VPN, RPKI, SR/SRv6, and SD-WAN. He is an active participant for various NOGs, including SANOG, APRICOT, INNOG, and an active participant at the IETF.
Daniel Mondragon (Costa Rica Internet Exchange (CRIX)) is a Systems Engineer and Telematics Engineer. He has more than seven years of experience in high convergence networks and advanced routing and switching protocols. He has been working at NIC Costa Rica since 2016, particularly focused on CRIX, which is the first and biggest IXP in Costa Rica. He has advanced knowledge and certifications in DNS, DNSSEC, BGP, RPKI, IPv6, cloud computing, among others. He works with multiple ISPs inside and outside of Costa Rica, providing them with support and training, to strengthen the country’s Internet.
Kunal Krishnil Raj (Telecom Fiji Pte Ltd) is Senior Security, Research & Innovation Engineer for the ISP & Security team of Telecom Fiji with over five years’ experience in planning, operating and managing Service Provider Multi-Access Core and security infrastructure. He has been part of the recent ISP/MPLS and DWDM Upgrade for Telecom Fiji to revamp the old infrastructure. His key interests include open source, CDNs, DNS, BGP, IXP, security, automation, IPv6, SDN, 5G, and network documentation and operations optimization. He is also an APNIC Community Trainer.
Emmanuel Serrano Piña (Universidad Autonoma de Yucatán) is a Computer Systems Engineer with 15 years of experience in data networking and telecommunications technologies. He has a Master’s degree in Operations Management from the Autonomous University of Yucatán. He has worked as a TIC administrator in enterprise network architecture, design of operation schemes, administration and implementation of backbones and telecommunications infrastructure, network and data center infrastructure auditor, network security, and cybersecurity. He was co-leader of the team that made the adoption of MANRS at UADY.
Policy
Russell James Bean (Liberty Latin America (Cable & Wireless Panama)) is originally from the UK and has been living in Latin America for over 17 years. He has over 20 years of experience in the technology and telecoms industries. He was formerly manager of operations and engineering at Cable & Wireless Panama and now works as Incubation Manager for Liberty Latin America’s innovation labs. He is an active member of the Internet Society and was a founding member in the Panama Internet Society Chapter. He helped develop the first MANRS-conformant provider in Panama and runs many programs with ISOC and RIPE, including the K root DNS servers and RIPE probes.
Christopher Lee Bovee de Soto (SUNY Polytechnic Institute) is a New York-born, Puerto Rico-educated, network engineer and holds a Bachelor of IT Science (BITS) degree in Networks from EDP University. He is a graduate student researcher in the Cybersecurity Master of Science program at the SUNY Polytechnic Institute. There, he was awarded a Graduate Diversity Fellowship in 2020 for exemplifying the LGBT+ community as a historically underrepresented minority in STEM and for being a first-generation college student. He works as a Problem and Change Manager for New York State’s Office of Information Technology Services, where he is an enterprise networking subject matter expert. Initially hired into the Data Center Networks section, he was involved in a spectrum of tasks maintaining spine-leaf architecture, as well as public, private, and cloud interconnectivity.
Rebecca Emmanuel Ryakitimbo (Kuza STEAM Generation) is a techie, writer, researcher, and a lover of nature. Her work has been on leveraging technology solutions to solve community challenges including engagement in digital policies. She has been an Internet Society fellow, and a Google Policy fellow, among other fellowships. One of the Co-founders of Digital Grassroots, she has worked as a project team member with Kondoa community network in using TV white spaces technology to bring Internet connectivity to rural communities. She serves as the Principle Investigator for WildNET through Kuza STEAM Generation, a youth organization. WildNET is a National Geographic-funded project that will deploy community wireless networks and monitoring systems with the aim to monitor ecosystem health via citizen science.
Research
Romain Fontugne (Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ)) is a senior researcher at IIJ Research Lab, focusing on Internet measurements, traffic analysis, and routing. He is also a member of the WIDE project (MAWI working group) and an associate member of the Japanese-French Laboratory for Informatics (JFLI). Romain lectured at Waseda University from 2013 to 2020 and obtained a PhD. in Computer Science from NII/Sokendai University.
Chris Kane (Arista) has been in the networking industry for 25 years. He has had the fun of playing in several verticals including the US Navy, service providers, financials, retail and is currently working for a networking OEM. Chris spends time as a student of the industry, reading, and gardening. He lives in Columbus, Ohio.
Dibya Khatiwada (Packet Clearing House) works as a peering coordinator at Packet Clearing House (PCH), responsible for interconnection of PCH’s DNS Anycast network with networks around the world meeting at different Internet Exchange Points. With over 10 years of experience in the field, he has been an active contributor at local and regional events like npNOG, SANOG, APRICOT. His areas of research include interdomain routing, IXPs, Peering, and Internet measurements. He holds a Master degree in Telecommunication Engineering from the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand.
Cyrus Mbitau Njoka (Kemnet Technologies Limited) is Senior Systems & Network Engineer at Kemnet Technologies Limited (AS328578). He is also the founder of Wofbit Networks, a Community-based Network Solutions company. His research interests include advanced routing and security, DNS, and the Internet of Things, He is a cybersecurity and IPv6 enthusiast with a dream to take the industry to the next level.