Presentation of Inventor of the Year Award to Steven Kirsch, Propel Software
SVIPLA honors Steven T. Kirsch, Chairman of Propel Software Corporation, San Jose, as the recipient of the Inventor of the Year Award for 2008.  Mr. Kirsch stands acclaimed as the inventor of the Optical Mouse, as a founder of Infoseek, and for many other contributions to the computer and Internet technologies.  Mr. Kirsch brought the mouse to the IBM PC as part of Mouse Systems.  He co-founded Frame Technology (makers of FrameMaker, later purchased by Adobe), co-founded Propel Software following the buyout of Infoseek, and most recently led Abaca.  His developments also include the Internet accelerator for Propel Software and the anti-spam software for Abaca.  While in high school, he worked with Vint Cerf (the father of the Internet) as a systems programmer.  His contributions extend to philanthropic works including the Kirsch Foundation.  As a result, Mr. Kirsch and his wife, Michele, previously were named “Outstanding Philanthropists of the Year” by the Silicon Valley chapter of the National Society of Fund Raising Executives.