TeraGrid '07 Speakers Include Jones, Maechling and Strong

Published 04/09/2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Faith Singer-Villalobos
Texas Advanced Computing Center
faith@tacc.utexas.edu
512.232.5771

Michael Schneider
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
schneider@psc.edu
412.268.4960

CHICAGO - One of the country's preeminent leaders in information technology, Anita K. Jones, who directed research at the Department of Defense from 1993-97, managing a budget of $11 billion, will deliver the keynote speech at TeraGrid '07, the second annual TeraGrid conference, June 4 - 8 in Madison, Wisconsin.

Other noted leaders in cyberinfrastructure who will speak include Philip Maechling, who leads earthquake modeling at the Southern California Earthquake Center (SCEC), and Paul Strong of eBay Research Labs, who directs strategy for eBay's infrastructure and enterprise management.

"Few people can talk about 21st-century research and the critical role of cyberinfrastructure with the authority of Anita Jones," said TeraGrid director Charlie Catlett. "She's among the leading echelon of scientists and visionary leaders in the United States and a pioneer for women in science and technology careers. We're pleased she can join us at this year's conference. We are also excited to have Phil Maechling speak about the innovative science that SCEC has done using advanced TeraGrid capabilities, and to hear from Paul Strong who has been a pioneer in scalable infrastructure design for many years."

Registration remains open for the conference (see http://www.teragrid.org) at a reduced rate until May 5.

The conference will highlight scientific results from the use of TeraGrid and will include (Monday, June 4) thirteen tutorials on TeraGrid resources, such as visualization tools, Science Gateways and Globus middleware.

The conference also includes three student research competitions (entries due April 13). "We welcome high school, undergraduate and graduate students to showcase their talents and creativity," said conference co-chair Gary Bertoline of Purdue University, "to convey how cyberinfrastructure will impact the world."

Attendees at the conference, for which this year's theme is "Broadening Participation in TeraGrid," include leaders in cyberinfrastructure, educators and students. "This conference will feature in-depth orientation about TeraGrid," said conference co-chair Roscoe Giles of Boston University, "for the broader community and prospective new collaborators."

About the speakers:
Anita K. Jones is the Lawrence R. Quarles Professor of Engineering & Applied Science and Professor of Computer Science at the University of Virginia. As Director of Defense Research and Engineering for the U.S. Department of Defense from 1993-97, Jones was responsible for the management of the science and technology program, including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, oversight of the DoD laboratories, as well as being the principal advisor to the Secretary of Defense for defense-related scientific and technical matters. She serves on numerous corporate and non-profit boards and was vice-chair of the National Science Board.

Philip Maechling is the Information Technology Architect at the Southern California Earthquake Center and Project Manager on the NSF-funded project "A Petascale Cyberfacility for Physics-based Seismic Hazard Analysis." At SCEC since 2002, Maechling led the development of an integrated geophysical simulation modeling framework called the SCEC Community Modeling Environment (CME). The SCEC CME system integrates high performance Geoscientific application programs into a distributed, grid-based, scientific workflow system that provides scientists with the ability to perform large-scale and highly complex research simulations and to organize and analyze the simulation results.

Paul Strong, a distinguished engineer at eBay Research Labs, focuses on enterprise grid architectures and technologies and drives the long-term vision and strategy for eBay's infrastructure and enterprise management. Prior to joining eBay, Strong was a systems architect at Sun Microsystems where he focused on grid standards and the N1 product set. As part of the original N1 team, he co-authored "Building N1 Grid Solutions" (Prentice Hall, 2004). Strong is currently serving as the vice chair of the Open Grid Forum (OGF).

For more on TeraGrid '07, the program and speakers, see http://www.teragrid.org

About TeraGrid:
The TeraGrid, sponsored by the National Science Foundation Office of Cyberinfrastructure, is a partnership of people, resources and services that enables discovery in U.S. science and engineering. Through coordinated policy, grid software, and high-performance network connections, the TeraGrid integrates a distributed set of high-capability computational, data-management and visualization resources to make research more productive. With Science Gateway collaborations and education programs, the TeraGrid also connects and broadens scientific communities.