Robert McCool
Robert Martin McCool | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1973 United States |
| Occupation(s) | Software engineer, system architect |
| Years active | 1990s–present |
| Known for | Creator of the original NCSA HTTPd web server (later Apache HTTP Server), contributor to CGI specification, early Netscape employee |
Robert Martin McCool (b. 1973), commonly referred to as Rob McCool, is recognized as a software engineer and system architect.
He created the original NCSA HTTPd web server, which was subsequently renamed the Apache HTTP Server. Up through Apache version 2.2, the httpd.conf configuration files contained annotations bearing his signature. The initial release was developed during his undergraduate studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he collaborated with the founding team behind NCSA Mosaic. Both he and his twin brother Mike, who also participated in the Mosaic project, completed their bachelor's degrees in 1995. In 2007, Robert was honored with the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy Alumni Trailblazer Award.
McCool played a key role in formulating the original Common Gateway Interface (CGI) specification and implemented its reference version within NCSA HTTPd 1.0. Launched in December 1993, CGI was instrumental in facilitating dynamic and interactive web pages.
During his tenure as an early employee at Netscape, he contributed to the development of Netscape Enterprise Server, including work on the NSAPI and other server-side innovations.
While at Stanford University, McCool co-developed the TAP and KDD frameworks designed to enhance human-generated web content through automation. His scholarly output includes significant publications on semantic search, semantic web methodologies, and provenance of knowledge.
He currently lives in Menlo Park, California.