Plenary Speakers
EGEE'07 will be opened by
Minister of Education and Culture
Minister of Education and Culture
Monday 1 October and Tuesday 2 October Plenary Sessions will be broadcasted and archived by NIIF. To access the broadcast link please click
EGEE'07 include the following world-renowned keynote speakers:
Dr. Francine Berman is Professor in the UC San Diego Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), and first holder of the High-Performance Computing Endowed Chair in the Jacobs' School of Engineering at UC San Diego. Dr. Berman is a pioneer in grid computing and an international leader in the development of cyberinfrastructure. She has worked extensively in the areas of adaptive middleware, parallel programming environments, scheduling, and high performance computing. Since 2001, Dr. Berman has served as Director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) where she leads a staff of more than 400 interdisciplinary scientists, engineers, and technologists in the innovation and provision of national-scale cyberinfrastructure. Dr. Berman is one of the two founding Principle Investigators of the National Science Foundation's TeraGrid project, and also directed the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI), a consortium of 41 research groups, institutions, and university partners with the goal of building national infrastructure to support research and education in science and engineering. She serves on a variety of national and international groups and committees, including the National Science Foundation's Engineering Advisory Committee and the National Institutes of Health's NIGMS Advisory Committee. For her accomplishments, leadership, and vision, Dr. Berman was recognized in 2004 as one of the top women in technology by BusinessWeek, as one of the top technologists by IEEE Spectrum, and most recently as a leader in science and technology by Newsweek.
Ian Bird
Ian Bird is currently the Operations Manager of the EGEE project, responsible for deploying, operating, and supporting the EGEE grid infrastructure. He is also the Grid Deployment Area manager of the LCG project with responsibility for deploying the LCG service across international grid infrastructures including EGEE. He is leader of a group in the IT Department at CERN. The group has responsibility for the CERN technical contributions to EGEE, including leadership of the operations and integration/testing activities, as well as the grid data management development. Technical coordination with many related infrastructure projects are also responsibilities of the group.
Prior to joining CERN in 2002 he spent 6 years at Jefferson Lab in Virginia, USA, where he was head of the computing group and responsible for all aspects of computing for the laboratory. His background and Ph.D. are in particle physics, having spent many years coordinating the software and computing for the CERN muon experiments studying nucleon structure functions and later in the Nomad neutrino experiment.
Francesco Calabrese
Francesco Calabrese graduated cum laude in 2004 with a degree in Informatics Engineering from the University of Naples Federico II, Italy. Since then, he has been pursuing a PhD in Informatics and Automatics Engineering in the Department of Computer and Systems Engineering in Naples, where he researchs on hybrids control systems, embedded control systems, CNC machines and finite-time stability.
Francesco is also a visiting doctoral student at the SENSEable City Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA, where he explores new technologies for monitoring flows in cities to better understand how space and infrastructure are used.
Francesco is a member of the IEEE and the IEEE Control Systems Society.
Ulf Dahlsten
Mr. Dahlsten, born in 1946 and of Swedish nationality, is Director of “Emerging Technologies and Infrastructures” at the Directorate-General Information Society in the European Commission.
Ulf Dahlsten holds a Civil Engineer’s (M.Sc.) degree in Physics from the Royal Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics. He has been member of several think-tanks and Research Associate at the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Sciences at the London School of Economics.
Prior to serving in the Commission, Ulf Dahlsten was President and CEO of Icon Medialab International, an internet consultancy offering solutions in ecommerce.
From 1988 to 1999, Ulf Dahlsten worked with the Swedish Postal Services, first as Director-General and then after deregulation as President and CEO of Posten AB. For transforming a monopoly-protected public authority into a profitable customer and business oriented company he was honoured with the ‘European Hermes Award’.
From 1982 to 1988, Mr. Dahlsten occupied various posts with the Swedish government, including State Secretary for Energy for Communications as well as State Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office.
Ákos Detrekői
Mr. Detrekői, born in 1939 and of Hungarian nationality, is Chair of National Council for Communications and Information Technology from 2004.
From 1997 to 2004, Ákos Detrekői was Rector of Budapest University of Technology and Economics. From 1995 he is a member of Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS). He was president of HAS Academic committee of Geodesy between 1990 and 1996.
He is a full member of the following learned societies and academies: Academia Europaea, Hungarian Humboldt Society, Hungarian Society of Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, International Federation of Surveyors, Modena National Academy of Science and Art.
Mr. Detrekői received his university degree with honours in 1963 at BME in engineering, and started working as lecturer at the university. From 1977 he became Professor and Chair of Department of Photogrammetry. From 1986 to 1990 he was Dean of Faculty of Civil Engineering. His particular field of research are Mathematical processing of measurements, deformation measurements, quality of GIS data, engineering geodesy, photogrammetry, geographical information systems and compensation calculations.
He has received the following awards and recognitions: Commandeur de l’Ordre du Lion de Finlande, Péter Pázmány Prize, Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize, The Middle Cross with the Star of the Hungarian Republic, First Class Middle Cross with the Star of Federal Republic of Germany, Szent-Györgyi Albert Prize.
His writings are regularly published in various journals and study collections both in Hungary and abroad. He regularly takes part in Hungarian and international conferences.
Peter Fuzes
Peter Fuzes is the Country Leader of Oracle Hungary Kft. since 2002. He is responsible for planning, organizing and directing the executional processes of Oracle’s go-to-market strategical initiatives. He also manages the major sales business unit, line of business, he is Oracle’s representative to customers, partners, employees governmental bodies, social partners, media, the community and so forth in the country.
In addition to his current position of Hungary country leader he is the chairperson for Industries Business Development Team in Eastern Europe and functions as Business Development Manager in that region.
Before joining Oracle, Peter Fuzes held a senior position at Avaya Communications. As a Regional Director he was responsible for Avaya’s activities in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and former Yugoslavia.
After completing his tertiary studies he started his carreer as a software developer and project manager at Novotrade.
In 1990 he graduated from the Budapest University of Technology. He continued his studies and received a diploma in Economics from the Budapest University of Economic Sciences in 1997.
As a recognition of his work in introducing state-of-the art information technology solutions and for supporting and strenghtening the Hungarian IT sector's international role László Sólyom, President of the Republic granted the Merit of the Hungarian Republic, Knight's Cross to Peter Fuzes.
He is married and has 3 children, spends his freetime with his family and likes playing squash.
Wolfgang Gentzsch
Wolfgang Gentzsch is Coordinator of the German D-Grid Initiative, visiting scientist at the Renaissance Computing Institute at UNC Chapel Hill, and an adjunct professor of computer science at Duke and NCState universities in North Carolina. He is a member of the US President's Council of Advisors for Science and Technology, PCAST. Before, Wolfgang was managing director for Grid Computing and Networking Services at MCNC in North Carolina, and Sun Microsystems senior director of grid computing in California. Recently, he was Area Director of major grid projects of the OGF Steering Group and Co-Chair of the e-IRG e-Infrastructure Reflection Group.
Claudio Grandi
Claudio Grandi got his Degree in Physics in 1990 and the PhD in 1996 at Bologna University. From 2001 is working in INFN as researcher in computing technologies. He has been working in the OPAL experiment where he was responsible of the software packages for luminosity measurement with the Forward Detectors. He also did physics studies on Z0 and on fragmentation of light quarks. The activity then continued in the Monarc project and the CMS experiment. In CMS he has been responsible for the muon trigger simulation package. He coordinated the BOSS (Batch Object Submission System) project for job tracking on local and grid systems, was responsible of the CMS Grid Integration task and member of the CMS Computing and Core Software Steering Committee from 2001 to 2004. He contributed to the design and implementation of the CMS Computing system, being co-editor of the CMS Computing Model paper and co-author of the CMS Computing Technical Design Report. He has been the Technical coordinator of the CMS-Italy Computing and Software Project form 2004 to 2005. He is the Activity Manager for Middleware Re-engineering in EGEE and EGEE-II since November 2005.
Minister István Hiller
Mr. Hiller, born in 1964 and of Hungarian nationality, is Minister of Education and Culture of Hungary and Vice-President of Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP).
Previously, from 2003 to 2005, István Hiller was Minister of Cultural Heritage and from 2002 to 2003 Political Undersecretary of State at Ministry of Education.
He is a founder member of the MSZP and took part in the wording of the Hungarian Social Democratic Charter. The year 2000 Congress of MSZP elected him member of the party's National Presidency and from 2004 to 2006 he was President of the Hungarian Socialist Party. As head of the Education Cabinet of MSZP he directed work over the chapter on education in the party's 2002 election programme.
Mr. Hiller studied history and Latin language and literature at the Eötvös Lóránd University (ELTE) in Budapest. He graduated in 1988. He took his doctorate summa cum laude in 1990 and in 1996 his PhD degree.
István Hiller started his career as a scholarship holder then later as an assistant lecturer at the Department of Hungarian History of the Middle and Modern Ages at the Eötvös Lóránd University (ELTE) in Budapest. In 1995 and in 1997 he worked and carried out research at the Institute of History of the University of Vienna.
In 1999 ELTE students voted him "The University Lecturer of the Year".
In 2004, he received German, Italian and French Order of Knighthoods. His writings are regularly published in various journals and study collections both in Hungary and abroad. He regularly takes part in Hungarian and international history conferences.
Robert Jones
Dr Jones was the technical director of the EU EGEE project, which provides a production grid facility for e-Science in Europe and took on the role of Project Director from November 2005.
Previous experience in the grid arena includes his mandate as Technical Coordinator and then Deputy Project Leader for the EU DataGrid Project (2001-2004), the flagship grid project of the European Union in its 5th Framework Programme.
Following a B.Sc. (Hons) in Computer Science from Staffordshire University, joined CERN in 1986 as a software developer with the Information Technology (IT) department providing support for the LEP experiments. He completed his PhD thesis in Computer Science at Sunderland University while working at CERN and was involved in several research projects for the LHC accelerator.
He is a member of the ATLAS physics experiment collaboration and has previously been responsible for the online software group.
Dr Jones has lectured on software engineering related subjects at events such as the CERN School of computing.
He serves regularly on review panels for the European Commission and national eScience programmes.
Norbert Kroó
Mr. Kroó, born in 1934 and of Hungarian nationality, is Vice-President of Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS) and Director of the Laboratory of Solid-State Physics and Optics of HAS.
Prior this position Norbert Kroó was Deputy Secretary of State, Ministry of Education and from 1981 to 1998 Director, Research Institute for Solid-State Physics and Optics of HAS.
From 1968 to 1981, Mr. Kroó occupied various posts with the Hungarian Academy including Deputy Director of Laboratory for Neutron Physics and Head of Neutron Physics Group of Solid-State Physics Department at Central Research Institute for Physics.
He is a full member of the following learned societies and academies: Academia Europaea, New York Academy, Hungarian Nuclear Society, Hungarian Medical Laser Society, European Physical Society, Optical Society of America, IEEE (Hungarian branch), National Geographic Society, Academy of Sciences and Arts, EUROSCIENCE; Fellow of the Institute of Physics.
His particular field of research are solid-state physics and optics. He has studied the microscopic properties of solids and liquids with the help of neutron scattering as well as laser light. He has worked on creating and applying new types of lasers with particular regard to medical, technological, and metrological applications. In his latest publications, he has contributed to the development of a new type of near field microscope with extreme resolution to be applied in surface physics.
He has worked or taught at the following foreign institutions: IAEA grant for research in Sweden (1963-1964), yearly guest professorships in a wide selection of countries since 1983, recently, as a winner of the Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize, he worked regularly first at the Solid State, later at the Quantum Optics Research Institute of the Max Planck Society.
He received his university degree M.A with honours as a grantee for the last two years in 1958 at the School of Natural Sciences of ELTE University, Budapest. He received his Ph.D. in 1965, the golden ring from the President of Hungary a year later, his Doctor of the Academy of Sciences in 1968. He became a Corresponding Member of HAS in 1985, and a Full Member in 1990.
He has received the following awards and recognitions: Sub Auspiciis golden ring for outstanding university student achievement, Academy Prize, ELFT Zoltán Gyulai Prize, Golden Grade of the Order of Labour, Péter Pázmány Prize, Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize, The Middle Cross with the Star of the Hungarian Republic, Jedlik Prize of the Hungarian Patent Office, Pro Doctorandis Prize; Honoris Causa Doctor of the Helsinki Technical University, Honorary Member of the Royal Spanish Academy of Engineering , and of the Jordanian Science Society.
Cal Loomis
Charles Loomis is currently a research engineer with CNRS and a founding partner of Six2. In 1992, he received his doctorate from Duke University in high-energy physics. He subsequently worked as a researcher in major experiments on both sides of the Atlantic---CDF at Fermilab, ALEPH and ATLAS at CERN. His participation in grid technology projects started in 2001 with the European DataGrid project. In that project, he managed the Integration Team that played a major role in integrating, testing, and deploying the DataGrid middleware. In the following EGEE and EGEE-II projects, he worked directly with the end-users to ensure that the EGEE middleware and infrastructure met their needs. During these grid projects, he also maintained an active cluster on the grid and is a major contributor to the Quattor toolkit, which facilitates the installation and management of clusters.
Satoshi Matsuoka
Satoshi Matsuoka received his Ph. D. from the University of Tokyo in 1993. He became a full Professor at the Global Scientific Information and Computing Center (GSIC) of Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech / Titech) in April 2001, leading the Research Infrastructure Division Solving Environment Group of the Titech campus.
He has pioneered grid computing research in Japan the mid 90s along with his collaborators, and currently serves as sub-leader of the Japanese National Research Grid Initiative (NAREGI) project, that aim to create middleware for next-generation CyberScience Infrastructure. He was also the technical leader in the construction of the TSUBAME supercomputer, which has become the fast supercomputer in Asia-Pacific in June, 2006 at 85 Teraflops (peak) and 38.18 Teraflops (Linpack, 7th on the June 2006 list) and also serves as the core grid resource in the Titech Campus Grid.
He has been (co-) program and general chairs of several international conferences including ACM OOPSLA'2002, IEEE CCGrid 2003, HPCAsia 2004, Grid 2006, CCGrid 2006/2007, as well as countless program commmittee positions, in particular numerous SC technical papers committee duties including serving as the network area chair for SC2004. He has been a Steering Group member and an Area Director of the Global Grid Forum since 1999.
He has won several awards including the Sakai award for research excellence from the Information Processing Society of Japan in 1999, and recently received the JSPS Prize from the Japan Society for Promotion of Science.
He serves several editorial positions of international journals including Concurrency: Practice and Experience, and the Journal of Grid Computing.
Károly Molnár
Mr. Molnár, born in 1944, of Hungarian nationality, is Rector of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), Chairman of the Hungarian Rectors' Conference and Chairman of the Board of Directors at Paks Nuclear Power Plant Ltd.
From 2000 to 2004, Károly Molnár was Vice-Rector of BME for Education. From 1967 he occupied various posts at BME, including Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, and Head of Department of Chemical and Food Engineering.
Mr. Molnár started his career at Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Technical University of Budapest, where he obtained a degree in mechanical engineering in 1967 (MSc.). After his graduation he was employed at the Department of Chemical and Food Engineering and since then he has been working there.
His particular field of research are Unit Operations, Transport Phenomena, Separation Processes, Diffusion Processes, Drying of Macroporous Systems and Fluid Disperse Systems. He has got a PhD. degree in 1971 for the results achieved in the mass transfer processes investigation of tray columns. (Eddy-diffusion Coefficient of Valve Tray). He obtained the Candidate of Technical Sciences degree in 1978. He obtained the Doctor of Technical Sciences degree in 1991.
He is a full member of the following learned societies: European Federation of Chemical Engineering, International Solar Energy Society, and different Hungarian Technical and Scientific Societies.
His writings are regularly published in various journals and study collections both in Hungary and abroad. He regularly takes part in Hungarian and international conferences.
Ilona Vass
Ms Vass, born in 1950 and of Hungarian nationality, is Vice-President of Hungarian National Office for Research and Technology (NKTH).
Prior her current position, from 2003 to 2004, Ilona Vass was Director General of Office for Research Fund Management and Research Exploitation. She was responsible for managing competitive applications and contracts financed by the Hungarian Innovation Fund and EU Structural Funds.
Previously, from 2000 to 2003, Ilona Vass was Director of R&D Unit at Ericsson Telecommunication Hungary Ltd. From 1996 to 2000 she worked for the EUREKA Secretariat in Brussels as Deputy Head of Secretariat.
From 1992 to 1996, Ms Vass was Deputy Director General at Hungarian Ministry of Industry and Trade. She was responsible for quality matters, and for coordinating R&D activities in industry, especial SMEs, formulating technology policy including the restructuring of the innovation infrastructure (state-owned contract research organisations to private enterprises).
From 1990 to 1992 she worked as free-lance project manager, managing LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) software development for pharmaceutical companies. Prior this position she worked as system engineer at Department for Quality Assurance of Gedeon Richter Pharmaceutical Works.
Ilona Vass started her career as junior researcher at Research Institute for Technical Chemistry of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1975. She holds a Chemical Engineer’s degree from The Chemical University of Veszprém. She received her doctorate in 1980 in Chemical Engineering. She was working as a fellow researcher at Faculty of Analytical Chemistry at Technical University of Budapest.
Ian Bird is currently the Operations Manager of the EGEE project, responsible for deploying, operating, and supporting the EGEE grid infrastructure. He is also the Grid Deployment Area manager of the LCG project with responsibility for deploying the LCG service across international grid infrastructures including EGEE. He is leader of a group in the IT Department at CERN. The group has responsibility for the CERN technical contributions to EGEE, including leadership of the operations and integration/testing activities, as well as the grid data management development. Technical coordination with many related infrastructure projects are also responsibilities of the group.
Prior to joining CERN in 2002 he spent 6 years at Jefferson Lab in Virginia, USA, where he was head of the computing group and responsible for all aspects of computing for the laboratory. His background and Ph.D. are in particle physics, having spent many years coordinating the software and computing for the CERN muon experiments studying nucleon structure functions and later in the Nomad neutrino experiment.
Francesco Calabrese graduated cum laude in 2004 with a degree in Informatics Engineering from the University of Naples Federico II, Italy. Since then, he has been pursuing a PhD in Informatics and Automatics Engineering in the Department of Computer and Systems Engineering in Naples, where he researchs on hybrids control systems, embedded control systems, CNC machines and finite-time stability.
Francesco is also a visiting doctoral student at the SENSEable City Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA, where he explores new technologies for monitoring flows in cities to better understand how space and infrastructure are used.
Francesco is a member of the IEEE and the IEEE Control Systems Society.
Mr. Dahlsten, born in 1946 and of Swedish nationality, is Director of “Emerging Technologies and Infrastructures” at the Directorate-General Information Society in the European Commission.
Ulf Dahlsten holds a Civil Engineer’s (M.Sc.) degree in Physics from the Royal Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the Stockholm School of Economics. He has been member of several think-tanks and Research Associate at the Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Sciences at the London School of Economics.
Prior to serving in the Commission, Ulf Dahlsten was President and CEO of Icon Medialab International, an internet consultancy offering solutions in ecommerce.
From 1988 to 1999, Ulf Dahlsten worked with the Swedish Postal Services, first as Director-General and then after deregulation as President and CEO of Posten AB. For transforming a monopoly-protected public authority into a profitable customer and business oriented company he was honoured with the ‘European Hermes Award’.
From 1982 to 1988, Mr. Dahlsten occupied various posts with the Swedish government, including State Secretary for Energy for Communications as well as State Secretary of the Prime Minister’s Office.
Mr. Detrekői, born in 1939 and of Hungarian nationality, is Chair of National Council for Communications and Information Technology from 2004.
From 1997 to 2004, Ákos Detrekői was Rector of Budapest University of Technology and Economics. From 1995 he is a member of Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS). He was president of HAS Academic committee of Geodesy between 1990 and 1996.
He is a full member of the following learned societies and academies: Academia Europaea, Hungarian Humboldt Society, Hungarian Society of Surveying, Mapping and Remote Sensing, International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, International Federation of Surveyors, Modena National Academy of Science and Art.
Mr. Detrekői received his university degree with honours in 1963 at BME in engineering, and started working as lecturer at the university. From 1977 he became Professor and Chair of Department of Photogrammetry. From 1986 to 1990 he was Dean of Faculty of Civil Engineering. His particular field of research are Mathematical processing of measurements, deformation measurements, quality of GIS data, engineering geodesy, photogrammetry, geographical information systems and compensation calculations.
He has received the following awards and recognitions: Commandeur de l’Ordre du Lion de Finlande, Péter Pázmány Prize, Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize, The Middle Cross with the Star of the Hungarian Republic, First Class Middle Cross with the Star of Federal Republic of Germany, Szent-Györgyi Albert Prize.
His writings are regularly published in various journals and study collections both in Hungary and abroad. He regularly takes part in Hungarian and international conferences.
Peter Fuzes is the Country Leader of Oracle Hungary Kft. since 2002. He is responsible for planning, organizing and directing the executional processes of Oracle’s go-to-market strategical initiatives. He also manages the major sales business unit, line of business, he is Oracle’s representative to customers, partners, employees governmental bodies, social partners, media, the community and so forth in the country.
In addition to his current position of Hungary country leader he is the chairperson for Industries Business Development Team in Eastern Europe and functions as Business Development Manager in that region.
Before joining Oracle, Peter Fuzes held a senior position at Avaya Communications. As a Regional Director he was responsible for Avaya’s activities in Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and former Yugoslavia.
After completing his tertiary studies he started his carreer as a software developer and project manager at Novotrade.
In 1990 he graduated from the Budapest University of Technology. He continued his studies and received a diploma in Economics from the Budapest University of Economic Sciences in 1997.
As a recognition of his work in introducing state-of-the art information technology solutions and for supporting and strenghtening the Hungarian IT sector's international role László Sólyom, President of the Republic granted the Merit of the Hungarian Republic, Knight's Cross to Peter Fuzes.
He is married and has 3 children, spends his freetime with his family and likes playing squash.
Wolfgang Gentzsch is Coordinator of the German D-Grid Initiative, visiting scientist at the Renaissance Computing Institute at UNC Chapel Hill, and an adjunct professor of computer science at Duke and NCState universities in North Carolina. He is a member of the US President's Council of Advisors for Science and Technology, PCAST. Before, Wolfgang was managing director for Grid Computing and Networking Services at MCNC in North Carolina, and Sun Microsystems senior director of grid computing in California. Recently, he was Area Director of major grid projects of the OGF Steering Group and Co-Chair of the e-IRG e-Infrastructure Reflection Group.
Claudio Grandi got his Degree in Physics in 1990 and the PhD in 1996 at Bologna University. From 2001 is working in INFN as researcher in computing technologies. He has been working in the OPAL experiment where he was responsible of the software packages for luminosity measurement with the Forward Detectors. He also did physics studies on Z0 and on fragmentation of light quarks. The activity then continued in the Monarc project and the CMS experiment. In CMS he has been responsible for the muon trigger simulation package. He coordinated the BOSS (Batch Object Submission System) project for job tracking on local and grid systems, was responsible of the CMS Grid Integration task and member of the CMS Computing and Core Software Steering Committee from 2001 to 2004. He contributed to the design and implementation of the CMS Computing system, being co-editor of the CMS Computing Model paper and co-author of the CMS Computing Technical Design Report. He has been the Technical coordinator of the CMS-Italy Computing and Software Project form 2004 to 2005. He is the Activity Manager for Middleware Re-engineering in EGEE and EGEE-II since November 2005.
Mr. Hiller, born in 1964 and of Hungarian nationality, is Minister of Education and Culture of Hungary and Vice-President of Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP).
Previously, from 2003 to 2005, István Hiller was Minister of Cultural Heritage and from 2002 to 2003 Political Undersecretary of State at Ministry of Education.
He is a founder member of the MSZP and took part in the wording of the Hungarian Social Democratic Charter. The year 2000 Congress of MSZP elected him member of the party's National Presidency and from 2004 to 2006 he was President of the Hungarian Socialist Party. As head of the Education Cabinet of MSZP he directed work over the chapter on education in the party's 2002 election programme.
Mr. Hiller studied history and Latin language and literature at the Eötvös Lóránd University (ELTE) in Budapest. He graduated in 1988. He took his doctorate summa cum laude in 1990 and in 1996 his PhD degree.
István Hiller started his career as a scholarship holder then later as an assistant lecturer at the Department of Hungarian History of the Middle and Modern Ages at the Eötvös Lóránd University (ELTE) in Budapest. In 1995 and in 1997 he worked and carried out research at the Institute of History of the University of Vienna.
In 1999 ELTE students voted him "The University Lecturer of the Year".
In 2004, he received German, Italian and French Order of Knighthoods. His writings are regularly published in various journals and study collections both in Hungary and abroad. He regularly takes part in Hungarian and international history conferences.
Dr Jones was the technical director of the EU EGEE project, which provides a production grid facility for e-Science in Europe and took on the role of Project Director from November 2005.
Previous experience in the grid arena includes his mandate as Technical Coordinator and then Deputy Project Leader for the EU DataGrid Project (2001-2004), the flagship grid project of the European Union in its 5th Framework Programme.
Following a B.Sc. (Hons) in Computer Science from Staffordshire University, joined CERN in 1986 as a software developer with the Information Technology (IT) department providing support for the LEP experiments. He completed his PhD thesis in Computer Science at Sunderland University while working at CERN and was involved in several research projects for the LHC accelerator.
He is a member of the ATLAS physics experiment collaboration and has previously been responsible for the online software group.
Dr Jones has lectured on software engineering related subjects at events such as the CERN School of computing.
He serves regularly on review panels for the European Commission and national eScience programmes.
Mr. Kroó, born in 1934 and of Hungarian nationality, is Vice-President of Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS) and Director of the Laboratory of Solid-State Physics and Optics of HAS.
Prior this position Norbert Kroó was Deputy Secretary of State, Ministry of Education and from 1981 to 1998 Director, Research Institute for Solid-State Physics and Optics of HAS.
From 1968 to 1981, Mr. Kroó occupied various posts with the Hungarian Academy including Deputy Director of Laboratory for Neutron Physics and Head of Neutron Physics Group of Solid-State Physics Department at Central Research Institute for Physics.
He is a full member of the following learned societies and academies: Academia Europaea, New York Academy, Hungarian Nuclear Society, Hungarian Medical Laser Society, European Physical Society, Optical Society of America, IEEE (Hungarian branch), National Geographic Society, Academy of Sciences and Arts, EUROSCIENCE; Fellow of the Institute of Physics.
His particular field of research are solid-state physics and optics. He has studied the microscopic properties of solids and liquids with the help of neutron scattering as well as laser light. He has worked on creating and applying new types of lasers with particular regard to medical, technological, and metrological applications. In his latest publications, he has contributed to the development of a new type of near field microscope with extreme resolution to be applied in surface physics.
He has worked or taught at the following foreign institutions: IAEA grant for research in Sweden (1963-1964), yearly guest professorships in a wide selection of countries since 1983, recently, as a winner of the Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize, he worked regularly first at the Solid State, later at the Quantum Optics Research Institute of the Max Planck Society.
He received his university degree M.A with honours as a grantee for the last two years in 1958 at the School of Natural Sciences of ELTE University, Budapest. He received his Ph.D. in 1965, the golden ring from the President of Hungary a year later, his Doctor of the Academy of Sciences in 1968. He became a Corresponding Member of HAS in 1985, and a Full Member in 1990.
He has received the following awards and recognitions: Sub Auspiciis golden ring for outstanding university student achievement, Academy Prize, ELFT Zoltán Gyulai Prize, Golden Grade of the Order of Labour, Péter Pázmány Prize, Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize, The Middle Cross with the Star of the Hungarian Republic, Jedlik Prize of the Hungarian Patent Office, Pro Doctorandis Prize; Honoris Causa Doctor of the Helsinki Technical University, Honorary Member of the Royal Spanish Academy of Engineering , and of the Jordanian Science Society.
Charles Loomis is currently a research engineer with CNRS and a founding partner of Six2. In 1992, he received his doctorate from Duke University in high-energy physics. He subsequently worked as a researcher in major experiments on both sides of the Atlantic---CDF at Fermilab, ALEPH and ATLAS at CERN. His participation in grid technology projects started in 2001 with the European DataGrid project. In that project, he managed the Integration Team that played a major role in integrating, testing, and deploying the DataGrid middleware. In the following EGEE and EGEE-II projects, he worked directly with the end-users to ensure that the EGEE middleware and infrastructure met their needs. During these grid projects, he also maintained an active cluster on the grid and is a major contributor to the Quattor toolkit, which facilitates the installation and management of clusters.
Satoshi Matsuoka received his Ph. D. from the University of Tokyo in 1993. He became a full Professor at the Global Scientific Information and Computing Center (GSIC) of Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech / Titech) in April 2001, leading the Research Infrastructure Division Solving Environment Group of the Titech campus.
He has pioneered grid computing research in Japan the mid 90s along with his collaborators, and currently serves as sub-leader of the Japanese National Research Grid Initiative (NAREGI) project, that aim to create middleware for next-generation CyberScience Infrastructure. He was also the technical leader in the construction of the TSUBAME supercomputer, which has become the fast supercomputer in Asia-Pacific in June, 2006 at 85 Teraflops (peak) and 38.18 Teraflops (Linpack, 7th on the June 2006 list) and also serves as the core grid resource in the Titech Campus Grid.
He has been (co-) program and general chairs of several international conferences including ACM OOPSLA'2002, IEEE CCGrid 2003, HPCAsia 2004, Grid 2006, CCGrid 2006/2007, as well as countless program commmittee positions, in particular numerous SC technical papers committee duties including serving as the network area chair for SC2004. He has been a Steering Group member and an Area Director of the Global Grid Forum since 1999.
He has won several awards including the Sakai award for research excellence from the Information Processing Society of Japan in 1999, and recently received the JSPS Prize from the Japan Society for Promotion of Science.
He serves several editorial positions of international journals including Concurrency: Practice and Experience, and the Journal of Grid Computing.
Mr. Molnár, born in 1944, of Hungarian nationality, is Rector of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics (BME), Chairman of the Hungarian Rectors' Conference and Chairman of the Board of Directors at Paks Nuclear Power Plant Ltd.
From 2000 to 2004, Károly Molnár was Vice-Rector of BME for Education. From 1967 he occupied various posts at BME, including Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, and Head of Department of Chemical and Food Engineering.
Mr. Molnár started his career at Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the Technical University of Budapest, where he obtained a degree in mechanical engineering in 1967 (MSc.). After his graduation he was employed at the Department of Chemical and Food Engineering and since then he has been working there.
His particular field of research are Unit Operations, Transport Phenomena, Separation Processes, Diffusion Processes, Drying of Macroporous Systems and Fluid Disperse Systems. He has got a PhD. degree in 1971 for the results achieved in the mass transfer processes investigation of tray columns. (Eddy-diffusion Coefficient of Valve Tray). He obtained the Candidate of Technical Sciences degree in 1978. He obtained the Doctor of Technical Sciences degree in 1991.
He is a full member of the following learned societies: European Federation of Chemical Engineering, International Solar Energy Society, and different Hungarian Technical and Scientific Societies.
His writings are regularly published in various journals and study collections both in Hungary and abroad. He regularly takes part in Hungarian and international conferences.
Ms Vass, born in 1950 and of Hungarian nationality, is Vice-President of Hungarian National Office for Research and Technology (NKTH).
Prior her current position, from 2003 to 2004, Ilona Vass was Director General of Office for Research Fund Management and Research Exploitation. She was responsible for managing competitive applications and contracts financed by the Hungarian Innovation Fund and EU Structural Funds.
Previously, from 2000 to 2003, Ilona Vass was Director of R&D Unit at Ericsson Telecommunication Hungary Ltd. From 1996 to 2000 she worked for the EUREKA Secretariat in Brussels as Deputy Head of Secretariat.
From 1992 to 1996, Ms Vass was Deputy Director General at Hungarian Ministry of Industry and Trade. She was responsible for quality matters, and for coordinating R&D activities in industry, especial SMEs, formulating technology policy including the restructuring of the innovation infrastructure (state-owned contract research organisations to private enterprises).
From 1990 to 1992 she worked as free-lance project manager, managing LIMS (Laboratory Information Management System) software development for pharmaceutical companies. Prior this position she worked as system engineer at Department for Quality Assurance of Gedeon Richter Pharmaceutical Works.
Ilona Vass started her career as junior researcher at Research Institute for Technical Chemistry of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1975. She holds a Chemical Engineer’s degree from The Chemical University of Veszprém. She received her doctorate in 1980 in Chemical Engineering. She was working as a fellow researcher at Faculty of Analytical Chemistry at Technical University of Budapest.
