What follows are excerpts from a foreword of a book compiled in Roger's honor and presented on Feb. 17, 2003, by dozens of the world's top computer scientists.

Roger Needham By Rick Rashid, Senior Vice President, Microsoft Research

When I heard Roger lecture for the first time I was taken aback by his remarkable and very unusual speaking style. I've since seen it described in the press as "deliberate and thoughtful" and it is all of that. Listening to a lecture in computer science can sometimes make you feel as though you are chasing after the words trying to piece together the speaker's meaning. When Roger spoke I found myself hanging on each word wondering with great anticipation what would come next. The wait was usually worthwhile. That summer in 1983 I discovered to my delight Roger's keen insight, dry wit and ability to turn the English language into his personal plaything.

Looking back, I still find it hard to believe that 20 years later I would be running a large research organization for Microsoft and would have the privilege of working with Roger on a daily basis as Managing Director of our Cambridge research laboratory. It has been quite a journey.

Early Career

The first major system Roger worked on following his Ph.D. was TITAN. The Laboratory, under Maurice Wilkes, was providing the software for hardware built by Ferranti (subsequently ICT/ICL). TITAN was the earliest computer system to employ cache memory and its operating system was the first multiaccess system written outside the United States to go into public use. Roger first worked with David Wheeler on design automation, and then became involved in building the operating system. One of Roger's enduring innovations was the use of a one-way function to protect its password file - something virtually every modern computer system does today. The TITAN file system also introduced the notion of full backup and restore and the ability to do incremental backups.

Computing in the 1960s and early 1970s was a "full contact sport." In keeping with his "systems" image - Roger was not above doing anything that might be required to keep his operating system running. In addition to developing TITAN's software, he enjoys telling the story of the miserable day he sat in an air- conditioning unit pouring water from a bucket over a pile of bricks to cool the system and keep it running for users.

As a member of the staff, Roger also began to teach, initially for the Diploma and later, when Cambridge accepted Computer Science as a degree subject, to undergraduates; and he began to take Ph.D. students, now to be met round the world.

Head of Department, Computer Laboratory

Roger had been promoted to Reader in Computer Systems in 1973, and was made Professor in 1981. When Maurice Wilkes retired in 1980, Roger became Head of Department. In addition to his personal scientific achievements, Roger oversaw the growth and maturation of Cambridge University's Computer Laboratory during an important part of its history. When he took over as Head of Department, the Laboratory had a teaching and research staff of 10 and just over 40 Ph.D. students. Ten years later, in 1990, the teaching and research staff had grown to 27 and the number of Ph.D. students had more than doubled. Roger is quoted as referring to this as the Laboratory's: "halcyon days" - an expanding Laboratory and no external interference.

Though the Laboratory's strength was in systems, and Roger himself was a "systems" scientist, he encouraged new areas to develop, for example, formal methods, and language and information processing. One topic of research Roger particularly developed at Cambridge was the intersection of multimedia systems and networking. As a result, Cambridge became one of the first research laboratories in the world where teleconferencing and video mail became regular tools for research.

Public Service

Roger began his public service career in the 1960s as a member of the Science Research Council's Computing Science Committee. His public service activities ramified in the 80s and 90s, extending into all kinds of government and other boards and committees.

The list of awards and honors Roger has received for both his personal achievements and his contributions to Cambridge and to the field is impressive including being named Fellow of the British Computer Society, Fellow of the Royal Society, Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Fellow of the ACM. Roger was also awarded the (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for his services to Computer Science in 2001.

Working With Industry

One constant of Roger's career has been his consistent connection to industrial research and development. He was a Director of Cambridge Consultants in the 1960s, and for 10 years was on the Board of Computer Technology Ltd. He was a consultant to Xerox PARC from 1977-84 and to Digital's System Research Center from 1984-97. From 1995-97 he was a member of the international advisory board for Hitachi's Advanced Research Laboratory, and on the Board of UKERNA from its inception until 1998.

Spinoffs from the Computer Laboratory had begun in the 1970s, contributing to the "Cambridge Phenomenon." When Roger was Head of Department he fostered these connections, welcoming the idea of a Laboratory Supporters Club and becoming one of the "Godfathers" for Cambridge entrepreneurs.

Some of Roger's most famous papers were conceived during consulting trips and sabbaticals working at industrial research laboratories. The secure authentication system he described in his 1978 paper with Mike Schroeder of Xerox PARC became the basis for systems such as Kerberos - still in use today - and represented a turning point in distributed system security research. Working with Digital Equipment's Mike Burrows and Martin Abadi, he created the first formalism for the investigation of security protocols to come into wide use (also called the BAN logic, named for its authors). Roger also made contributions to Xerox's Grapevine project and Digital's AutoNet project.

Roger valued his longstanding connections with these company research centers. He was also able to observe the business of running a research centre - how, and also how not to - at first hand.

Microsoft Research Cambridge

My personal history intersected again with Roger's almost 14 years after my first meeting with him in 1983. In 1991 I left Carnegie Mellon University where I had been teaching for 12 years and joined Microsoft to start its basic research laboratory: Microsoft Research. From the beginning, Nathan Myhrvold, who had hired me as the first lab director, had contemplated creating a laboratory in Europe to complement the one we were building in the United States. For the first five years of Microsoft Research's growth, our Redmond facility was small enough that our first priority was to build it up to critical mass. By 1996 we had grown to over 100 researchers and it was time to consider expanding outside the United States.

It was in the fall of 1996 as we were considering European expansion that we learned through the grapevine that Roger Needham was willing to consider taking the position of Director of that lab. When I first heard the news I was tremendously excited. I couldn't imagine a better person to anchor this new venture.

In December, Nathan Myhrvold, Chuck Thacker, Roger Needham and I all met for a day in a hotel near the San Francisco airport to talk about starting the lab and by the end of the meeting it was clear we were moving forward. By April of 1997 the lab was announced with much fanfare and in October of 1997 Microsoft Research Cambridge officially "opened" with Roger Needham as its Managing Director. In its first temporary space in the middle of Cambridge, the Microsoft laboratory was close to the Computer Laboratory. Their two new buildings in West Cambridge are also close together, striking additions to the growing West Cambridge campus, and with their people interacting as Roger wanted. In a 1999 interview for the book "Inside Out, -Microsoft- In Our Own Words," Roger talked about the new lab he had started:

"I had a complete restart of my career at age 62, when I was asked to open MSR at Cambridge. I asked Rick what he wanted me to do. He said, 'Hire the best people and help them to do what they are good at.' Nathan Myhrvold added, 'If every project you start succeeds, you have failed.'"

"One of the most important rules of this research game is that unless you can get some of the best people in the field, you should not bother."

"I spent 35 years at Cambridge surrounded by brilliant people, and I rarely had sufficient money to hire them. That is why I enjoy this job so much."

Just as he was able to build the strength of the Computer Laboratory during the 1980s and 1990s, Roger did a stellar job hiring "some of the best people in the field" and in so doing turning Microsoft Research Cambridge into one of the premier institutions in Europe and a strong engine for innovation within Microsoft. Technology from Microsoft Research Cambridge is now embedded in many of Microsoft's key products, including Visual Studio, Microsoft Office and Microsoft Windows. Coming full circle, one of the earliest Cambridge technologies incorporated into Microsoft's products was an information retrieval engine - the field in which Roger received his Ph.D. nearly 40 years earlier.