Last modified: Tuesday, November 17, 2009
IU digital scientist and professor Geoffrey Fox named among "People to Watch"
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 17, 2009
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- 2009 has been a year to remember for Geoffrey Fox, Indiana University computational scientist. And according to HPCwire, the popular computing publication, in 2010 Fox will be someone to watch.
Fox has been named one of the high performance computing "People to Watch in 2010" by the online magazine. The annual list recognizes "the most influential, interesting and promising personalities having an impact on the world of High Performance Computing."
An award recognizing the honor will be presented to Fox by HPCwire editors at 4:30 p.m. (PST) on Wednesday, November 18. The presentation will take place at the Innovation Theatre within the IU display at the Supercomputing (SC09) Conference in Portland, Oregon.
Fox currently serves as director of the Pervasive Technology Institute (PTI) Digital Science Center at Indiana University and associate dean for research and graduate studies in the School of Informatics and Computing. As principal investigator, Fox led projects totaling more than $12.8 million in new federal and private grant funding in the past year. These include a National Science Foundation award to lead the collaborative FutureGrid project, an experimental testbed for grid and cloud technologies that will define the next generation of scientific supercomputing in the U.S. It is his work related to these grid and cloud applications that earned Fox a spot on the HPC list.
"Geoffrey Fox is among the most active and creative minds working in high performance computing today," said Craig A. Stewart, PTI executive director and associate dean for Research Technologies at IU. "His insights into the direction and potential of cloud computing in the sciences, and his leadership in taking a truly scientific approach to evaluating grid and cloud computing will help guide the scientific community in cyberinfrastructure research for years to come. We are exceptionally fortunate to have Geoffrey at Indiana University, directing some of our most important technology research efforts and educating Indiana's next generation of leaders in the fields of informatics and computing."
In a career spanning nearly four decades, Fox has authored more than 600 publications, including several books, and has advised more than 60 successful Ph.D. students. He is dedicated to the concept of "leveling the academic playing field" for Minority-Serving-Institutions (MSIs). Fox is a national leader in the effort to improve access to cyberinfrastructure for MSIs across the United States through his work with the Minority-Serving Institutions Cyberinfrastructure Coalition and the Alliance for Equity in Higher Education.
Fox's current research interests include the investigation of new programming models for parallel multicore and grid/cloud computing. These techniques improve the ability of supercomputers to support scientific research and facilitate large-scale data analysis in many areas of science, including physics, chemistry, and the medical and life sciences. Fox also serves as director of the PTI Community Grids Lab, where research teams work to develop web services, portal, and gateway technologies used to facilitate scientific computing and collaboration. Portals and gateways are online tools that help scientists gain easier access to data and advanced computational resources while participating in specialized online communities dedicated to their areas of research.
In addition to his leadership on the FutureGrid project, Fox serves as principal investigator for other high-profile, nationally funded research efforts including PolarGrid, a project to construct a computational grid in the polar regions to support scientific research on the world's shrinking polar ice sheets.
About Pervasive Technology Institute
Pervasive Technology Institute at Indiana University is a world-class organization dedicated to the development and delivery of innovative information technology to advance research, education, industry, and society. Supported in part by a $15M grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc., PTI is built upon a spirit of collaboration and brings together researchers and technologists from a range of disciplines and organizations, including the IU School of Informatics and Computing at Bloomington, the IU Maurer School of Law, and University Information Technology Services at Indiana University. See https://www.pti.iu.edu/.
About the IU School of Informatics and Computing
The Indiana University School of Informatics and Computing has set as its goal to be nationally recognized as the foremost in the country for excellence and leadership in Informatics programs, including undergraduate and graduate education, research, placement and outreach. See https://www.informatics.indiana.edu/.
About HPCwire
Published by Tabor Communications, HPCwire is the most recognized and accessed news and information site covering the entire ecosystem of High Productivity Computing (HPC). HPCwire is the publication of choice for the global community of business and technology professionals interested in computationally- and data-intensive computing, including infrastructure topics such as software, middleware, hardware, networking, storage, tools and applications. HPCwire can be found online at https://www.hpcwire.com.
