Google has appointed Vinton Cerf as its chief internet evangelist. Cerf will help Google to build network infrastructure, architectures, systems and standards to support next-generation internet applications. 

"Vint Cerf is clearly one of the great technology leaders of our time," said Google chief executive Eric Schmidt. "His vision for technology helped create entire industries that have transformed many parts of our lives."

Cerf added: "Google has already made tremendous strides in making access to information on the web a reality for users across the globe, but we are still in the internet's early innings.

"This medium will enjoy wider-spread use than television, radio or phones, and will ultimately expand beyond planet Earth."

Cerf is considered the father of the internet because of his work on designing the TCP/IP protocol, which allows data to be transmitted in packets over a network.

The internet pioneer developed the technology for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency at the US Department of Defense, the institute where the early foundations of the internet were laid.

Earlier this year Cerf was awarded the ACM Turing Award which is considered the 'Nobel prize' of the computing industry.

Cerf joins Google from the telecoms firm MCI where he was chief internet strategist. He will remain chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a governing body that oversees the assignment of domain names and IP addresses.

The 62 year-old scientist also plans to continue his work for the Jet Propulsion Lab at Nasa, where he works on technology to send communications signals between planets.