GÉANT2 Launch Event Speaker Biographies

Session III: User Support – from Technology to Service

Chair

Karel Vietsch 

Secretary-General, TERENA

Karel Vietsch has served as Secretary-General at TERENA  since 1996.
He studied Mathematics, Computer science and Economics at Leiden University . He then continued to work at the same university as a teaching and research assistant, and obtained his PhD. in 1979.

Following military service as a systems analyst, Dr Vietsch joined Delft University of Technology to become General Manager of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science. In 1984 he was employed by the Ministry of Education and Science as a Senior Policy Advisor for Information Technology in the Science Policy Department.

In 1992 he became Head of Unit for Information and Infrastructure in the Research and Science Policy Directorate of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science.

Speakers

John Boland 

Member of DANTE’s Board of Directors; Chief Executive of HEAnet

In 1997, John Boland was appointed to Chief Executive Officer of HEAnet, Ireland's National Education & Research Network.  Prior to that, he worked as Systems and Networks Manager in the Computer Services Department of Dublin City University and represented DCU on the HEAnet Network Management Committee, before its incorporation.

Prior to joining DCU Mr Boland worked in industry with a number of international companies including Marconi Communications Systems in the UK, Motorola Information Systems in the UK and the US and Westinghouse in Australia.

John Boland holds a  B. E. in Electronic Engineering from University College Dublin and has embarked on an ongoing M. Sc. in Computer Applications.

Joris van Enst 

Director Multidisciplinary Research LOFAR, ASTRON

Joris van Enst holds a degree in Geology. He started his career at the Geological Survey of the Netherlands as a contract researcher in 1986. In 1988 he joined the Ministry of Economic Affairs as a Science and Technology Policy Advisor. He contributed in several functions to research areas like ICT, Material Sciences, Biotechnology, Radioactive Waste Storage, Electricity and Renewable Energy. To that respect he was a representative for the Netherlands Government in several international forums. In 1999 he became Head of the Sciences Department of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, where he was responsible for the policy in all the science fields in the Netherlands.

In 2004, Joris van Enst was appointed Director of Science of the LOFAR project. LOFAR is a wide area sensor network which is capable of combining the largest radio telescope of the world with other sensor applications like geophysics, agriculture, meteorology and ICT.

Rupert Lück 

Head of IT Services, EMBL

At EMBL Rupert Lück is managing IT infrastructure and service operations for the sites Heidelberg and Rome and he is a main contributor to the evolving IT platform for advanced cross-site collaboration within EMBL and with the life science community. He joined EMBL in April coming from LION bioscience where he had international IT responsibility for more than seven years. As Head of Global IT Systems he was responsible for building LION’s IT infrastructure including the high performance computing centers at the headquarters in Heidelberg and the integration of the company’s seven international sites. In 2004 he became General Manager for LION’s Professional Services organization taking over development and business responsibility for a novel collaboration platform for drug development in the pharma industry.

Prior to joining LION, Dr. Lück had several IT consulting positions, e.g. with Lufthansa Systems. He holds a degree and PhD from the University of Düsseldorf.

Douglas Van Houweling 

President and CEO, Internet2

Douglas E. Van Houweling, President and CEO of Internet2, is also a Professor in the School of Information at the University of Michigan.  Dr. Van Houweling played a major role in Internet development in the United States. He was Chairman of the Board of MERIT Network, a Michigan statewide computing network, when the National Science Foundation awarded it responsibility for operation and management of the NSFNET national backbone in partnership with IBM, MCI and the Michigan Strategic Fund in 1987.  Dr Van Houweling has long been active in inter-university initiatives, serving on the EDUCOM Board and playing roles in establishing numerous initiatives to establish cooperative information technology efforts among universities.

From 1984 until 1997, Dr. Van Houweling served as the Vice Provost for Information and Technology at the University of Michigan, where he was responsible for the University's strategic direction in the information technology arena.

Van Houweling came to Michigan from Carnegie-Mellon University where he was Vice Provost for Computing and Planning from 1981 until 1984.  Before joining Carnegie-Mellon, Van Houweling was at Cornell University from 1970 to 1981 as Assistant Professor of Government. Starting in 1976, he took on the additional responsibilities for information technology leadership and became Director of Academic Computing and Central Computing Services in 1980.

Dr. Van Houweling received his undergraduate degree from Iowa State University and his Ph.D. in Government from Indiana University.