GÉANT2 Launch Event Speaker Biographies

Session II: Global Development of Research Networking

Chair

Kevin Thompson 

Program Director, NSF

Kevin Thompson serves as a Program Director at the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Division of Shared Cyberinfrastructure. He is responsible for the NSF Middleware Initiative (NMI) program, the International Research Network Connections (IRNC) program, and the Experimental Infrastructure Networks (EIN) program.

He started at NSF in January 2003. Prior to NSF, Mr. Thompson was Senior Manager in MCI's Advanced Internet Technologies department, responsible for engineering and operation of the vBNS network and associated advanced services.

Speakers

Dai Davies 

General Manager, DANTE

Dai Davies has been General Manager of DANTE for 11 years. He has degrees in Engineering and Computer Science from Cambridge University, and has considerable experience of the translation between technology and service in a broad range of communications activities.

He has worked for various European telecoms operators for over 15 years, both in technical and commercial positions. Before coming to DANTE Dai Davies was director of the COSINE Project Management Unit.

Duncan Martin 

CEO, TENET

Prior to his appointment as Chief Executive Officer of South African Tertiary Education Network (TENET), Duncan Martin was Director of Information Technology at the University of Cape Town.

From 1980 to 1989, he was Director (and from May 1983, Chief Director) of the National Research Institute for Mathematical Sciences (NRIMS) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Pretoria.

Duncan Martin lectured at Universities in the USA, Canada and South Africa.  He holds a degree in Applied Mathematics from the University of Natal and in 1965 he obtained a PhD in Mathematics from the University of South Africa.

Cem Saraç 

Director, ULAKBIM

Cem Saraç is Professor of Engineering at the University of Hacettepe and Director of ULAKBIM (Turkish Academic Network and Information Center). He holds a Ph.D. from Leeds University, U.K.

His current interests are mainly related to computer modelling and simulation techniques. He has been acting as a director of several institutions in Turkey for eleven years in informatics technologies.

Abdelkader Khelladi 

Director, CERIST

Abdelkader Khelladi has been CEO of CERIST since 2003.  Prior to that, he was Head of the Scientific Council of the Institut de Mathématiques de l'USTHB and, from 2000 to 2003, Head of the Scientific Council of the Faculty of Mathematics.

Porfessor  Khelladi has published about 40 publications in journals and at conferences in many fields of mathematics and theoretical computer science. In 2005 he published a book in Mathematical Analysis.

Jianping Wu 

Director, CERNET

Jianping Wu is Professor of the Department of Computer Science & Technology and Director of Network Research Center, of Tsinghua University. Since 1994, he has been in charge of China Education and Research Network (CERNET). He is a member of the Information Advisory Committee, the Office of National Information Infrastructure, the Secretariat of State Council of China, and a member of the Expert Committee for Information of the State High Technology 863 Project. He is also Vice President of the Internet Society of China (ISC), and vice chair of APAN (Asia-Pacific Advanced Network Consortium) as well as chair of APAN-CN.

Florencio Utreras 

Executive Director, CLARA

Since 2002 Florencio Utreras has been part of the team that fostered the creation of CLARA, the Cooperacion Latinoamericana de Redes Academicas, an organisation based in Uruguay aimed at promoting the use of advanced networks in Latin America.

He is currently the Executive Director of CLARA, the Latin American research networking association. He was previously Executive Director of REUNA, the Chilean Research and Education Network.

As a member of the CLARA Board and as a representative of the LA NREN's Mr Utreras has played an important role in the development of the ALICE Project.