Brian E. Carpenter is an IBM Distinguished Engineer working on Internet Standards and Technology. He is currently based at the IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, working on networking and Grid technology. From 1999 to 2001 he was at iCAIR, the international Center for Advanced Internet Research, sponsored by IBM at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.

Before joining IBM, he led the networking group at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, in Geneva, Switzerland, from 1985 to 1996. This followed ten years' experience in software for process control systems at CERN, which was interrupted by three years teaching undergraduate computer science at Massey University in New Zealand.

He holds a first degree in physics and a Ph.D. in computer science, and is a Chartered Engineer (UK) and a member of the IBM Academy of Technology. He is an active participant in the 6NET project and in the Internet Engineering Task Force, where he has worked on IPv6 and on Differentiated Services. He served from March 1994 to March 2002 on the Internet Architecture Board, which he chaired for five years. He is a Trustee of the Internet Society, and was Chairman of its Board of Trustees for two years until June 2002.