Steven Huter, director of the Network Startup Resource Center and a UO research associate, was inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame today. He has worked since 1990 to help bring the Internet to over 100 countries.

He was one of only 24 inductees to the hall of fame, along with 12 other Americans.

“Access to the Internet promotes economic growth, improvements to education, the dissemination of knowledge and overall human development,” Huter said in a press release.

His philosophy is to train locals to build and maintain networks, so that they can spread knowledge to people in their communities and continue to grow Internet access without outside help.

In Huter’s acceptance speech, he said that he would have preferred the honor to go to his entire group.

Google has given the NSRC grants of a total of $4.45 million in the last four years to help expand Internet access in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

“I think of the NSRC as 21st-century pioneers, helping to open up new Internet territory,” Vinton Cerf, vice president and chief Internet evangelist at Google, said in a statement. “It would be hard to overstate their contributions to increasing Internet access for everyone.”

The Internet Society created the Hall of Fame three years ago to recognize people who have contributed to spreading the Internet around the world.