Keynotes

Keynotes

We are pleased to announce the three Keynote Speakers for the 2008 e-Social Science Conference:

Professor Wolfgang Gentzsch, DEISA, Duke, and RENCI

Slides (20mb, ppt)

Talk Title: Challenges in Building Sustainable e-Infrastructures 

Abstract
High-speed networks transport data at the speed of light, middleware manages distributed computing resources in an intelligent manner, portal technology enable secure, seemless, and remote access to resources, applications, and data, and sophisticated numerical methods approximate the underlying mathematical equations in a highly accurate way. With the convergence of these core technologies into one complex service oriented architecture, we see the rise of large compute and data grids currently being built and deployed by e-Infrastructure initiatives such as DEISA, EGEE, NAREGI, and TERAGRID. While we master most of the technology aspects of these infrastructures, we still face a number of social, mental, cultural, and legal challenges. After a short introduction into the architecture, components, applications and benefits of e-infrastructures, this presentation will elaborate on some of the most obstructive barriers for building these infrastructures and for their wider acceptance. We will then discuss 10 rules which might help in developing sustainable infrastructures for research and industry. Finally, we will look at several important aspects beyond technological issues, such as sharing of resources, sensitive data, grid-enabling applications, open source, liability, licensing, and intellectual property, which can prevent further development and acceptance of this new technology.

Wolfgang Gentzsch is Dissemination Advisor for the DEISA Distributed European Initiative for Supercomputing Applications. He is an adjunct professor of computer science at Duke University in Durham, and a visiting scientist at RENCI Renaissance Computing Institute at UNC Chapel Hill, both in North Carolina. From 2005 to 2007, he was the Chairman of the German D-Grid Initiative. Recently, he was Vice Chair of the e-Infrastructure Reflection Group e-IRG; Area Director of Major Grid Projects of the OGF Open Grid Forum Steering Group; and he is a member of the US President's Council of Advisors for Science and Technology (PCAST-NIT). Before, he was Managing Director of MCNC Grid and Data Center Services in North Carolina; Sun's Senior Director of Grid Computing in Menlo Park, CA; President, CEO, and CTO of start-up companies Genias and Gridware, and professor of mathematics and computer science at the University of Applied Sciences in Regensburg, Germany. Wolfgang Gentzsch studied mathematics and physics at the Technical Universities in Aachen and Darmstadt, Germany.

Dr. Fran Berman, Director, San Diego Supercomputer Center, Professor and HPC Endowed Chair, UC San Diego

Talk title: 100 Years of Digital Data

Slides (pdf 8meg)

Abstract
The Information Age has brought with it a deluge of digital data. Current estimates are that by 2010, a zettabyte (10^21 bytes) of digital data will have been created from cell phones, computers, iPods, DVDs, sensors, satellites, scientific instruments, and other sources, providing a foundation for our digital world. Migrating digital content through new generations of storage media, making sense of its content, and ensuring that needed information is accessible now and for the foreseeable future constitute some of the most critical challenges of the Information Age. The San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) is U.S. institution leading the development and deployment of comprehensive infrastructure for managing, storing, preserving, and using digital data. In this talk, SDSC Director Fran Berman discusses the role of digital data in research and education: its use by communities, the challenges of sustaining valuable collections, and the opportunity to use the digital deluge to create new approaches for discovery and learning in the Information Age.

Biography
Dr. Francine Berman is Professor in the UCSD Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Fellow of the ACM, and first holder of the High Performance Computing Endowed Chair in the Jacobs School of Engineering at UCSD. 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 300+ interdisciplinary scientists, engineers, and technologists. SDSC is internationally known for its leadership in data-oriented science, technology, and Cyberinfrastructure, and its deep expertise in high performance computing and applications. As Director of SDSC, Dr. Berman is considered both a visionary and a pragmatist, and is a national advocate for the development of a comprehensive data Cyberinfrastructure.

Dr. Berman is one of the two founding Principal 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 has served on a broad spectrum of national and international leadership groups and committees including the National Science Foundation's Engineering Advisory Committee, the National Institutes of Health's NIGMS Advisory Committee, the Anita Borg Institute for Women and Technology Board of Trustees, and others. She is currently serving as co-Chair for the international Blue Ribbon Task Force for Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access. For her accomplishments, leadership, and vision, Dr. Berman was recognized as one of the top women in technology by BusinessWeek and as one of the top technologists by IEEE Spectrum.

Professor Craig Calhoun, President, Social Science Research Council, University Professor of the Social Sciences, New York University

Talk Title: Convenience or Transformation: What Should Social Scientists Want from e-Social Science?

Slides (pdf, 3mb)

Abstract
e-social science is already improving data infrastructures for social science. It promises new kinds of research as well, notably based on capacity to analyze transactional data. Still greater transformation would follow on reorganization of communication and collaboration among researchers. But most importantly, whether e-social science is transformative or merely helpful depends on whether its potential is recogized and creatively integrated into the develpment of new research problems by theoreticaly innovative scientists. To date this is lagging - in comparison to natural and physical science as well as in comparison to potential. e-social science is too often seen as a support system rather than science itself.

Biography
Craig Calhoun is University Professor of the Social Sciences at New York University where he directs the Institute for Public Knowledge. He is also President of the Social Science Research Council, an international leader in intellectual innovation and interdisciplinary research since 1923.

Calhoun received his doctorate from Oxford University. He taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for 19 years, serving also as Dean of the Graduate School and Director of the University Center for International Studies. He has been a visiting professor in China, Eritrea, France, Norway, and Sudan.

Calhoun has written on culture and communication, technology and social change, social theory and politics. His most recent books include Nations Matter: Culture, History, and the Cosmopolitan Dream (Routledge 2007), Cosmopolitanism and Belonging (Routledge 2008) and two edited collections, Sociology in America (Chicago 2007) and Lessons of Empire: Historical Contexts for Understanding America’s Global Power (with F. Cooper and K. Moore, New Press 2006). His new book, The Roots of Radicalism, will be published by the University of Chicago Press in 2008.