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BCNET & Netera proudly present this year's keynote speaker: Tony Hey, Corporate Vice President for Technical Computing, Microsoft.

Hey brings over 25 years of experience in concurrent computing to Microsoft’s efforts to deepen collaboration with top scientists and researchers.

As corporate vice president for technical computing, Tony Hey coordinates efforts across Microsoft Corp. to collaborate with the global scientific community. He is a top researcher in the field of parallel computing, and his experience in applying computing technologies to scientific research helps Microsoft work with researchers worldwide in various fields of science and engineering.

Before joining Microsoft, Hey worked as head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, where he helped build the department into one of the pre-eminent computer science research institutions in England. Since 2001, Hey has served as director of the United Kingdom's e-Science Initiative, managing the government's efforts to provide scientists and researchers with access to key computing technologies.

Hey is a fellow of the U.K.'s Royal Academy of Engineering and has been a member of the European Union's Information Society Technology Advisory Group. He also has served on several national committees in the U.K., including committees of the U.K. Department of Trade and Industry and the Office of Science and Technology. In addition, Hey has advised countries such as China, France, Ireland and Switzerland to help them advance their scientific agenda and become more competitive in the global technology economy. Hey received the award of Commander of the Order of the British Empire honor for services to science in the 2005 U.K. New Year's Honours List.

Hey is a graduate of Oxford University, with both an undergraduate degree in physics and a doctorate in theoretical physics.

Dick Hardt, Founder & CEO, Sxip Identity

A pioneer in the Web and open source software community, Dick Hardt has been active in software development for nearly two decades. His most recent venture, Sxip Identity, develops simple, secure, and open Identity 2.0 solutions that enable the creation of Internet identities. Prior to Sxip, Hardt founded ActiveState in 1997. Under his leadership as CEO, ActiveState became a leader in open source programming languages and anti-spam software and was acquired by UK- based software company, Sophos in 2003. As a successful entrepreneur and technology expert, Hardt is very involved in the technology community, speaking at numerous conferences and holding a board position with the Vancouver Enterprise Forum.

Ted Dodds, CIO, UBC

Ted Dodds is the Associate Vice President for Information Technology (CIO) at the University of British Columbia, a position he has held since 1997. Prior to that, he held IT management positions at two Ontario universities, and in the private sector, spanning a period of over twenty years.

His current responsibilities include institutional IT strategy and operations within a highly decentralized campus environment. In that capacity, he is spearheading UBC's e-Strategy Framework, which supports learning and research through radical changes to administrative practices and the use of Internet technologies (www.e-Strategy.ubc.ca). He is responsible for the University Networking Program (UNP), a $30 million capital project to install or upgrade 20,000 high-speed connections and establish a campus-wide wireless data network by the Fall of 2003.

Mr. Dodds is currently the Chair of the Board of Directors for BCNET, British Columbia's first Internetworking society focusing on the development of advanced networks.

Dave Nikolejsin, CIO Province of BC

Dave Nikolejsin was appointed as B.C.’s Chief Information Officer in July 2005. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for BCNET.
From 2003 to 2005, Dave was Assistant Deputy Minister, Ministry of Management Services, responsible for the NetWork BC (Digital Divide) Initiative. This initiative was created to respond to the New Era commitment to “connect every BC community to high-speed broadband.” It remains part of Dave’s new mandate.

Before that, Dave was Executive Director, Planning and Engineering for Common IT Services from 2001-2003 and Executive Director of Network Services from 1996-2001. He was the BC Systems Corporation’s Director of Network Services from 1994 to 1996, after holding various network management positions from 1989 to 1994. Dave earlier worked as a Network Analyst providing technical support of major services with SaskTel in Regina, Saskatchewan.

Dave graduated with Honours with a Diploma in Electronic Engineering from the Saskatchewan Technical Institute in Moose Jaw, Saskatch

Stuart Kauffman, IBI Director and iCORE Chair Biocomplexity and Informatics, University of Calgary

Stuart A. Kauffman is a professor at the University of Calgary with a shared appointment between biological sciences and physics and astronomy. He is also an emeritus professor of biochemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, a MacArthur Fellow and an external professor at the Santa Fe Institute.

Originally a medical doctor, Dr. Kauffman's primary work has been as a theoretical biologist studying the origin of life and molecular organization. Thirty-five years ago, he developed the Kauffman models, which are random networks exhibiting a kind of self-organization that he terms "order for free." Dr. Kauffman was the founding general partner and chief scientific officer of The Bios Group, a company (acquired in 2003 by NuTech Solutions) that applies the science of complexity to business management problems. He is the author of The Origins of Order, Investigations, and At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization.

Steve Jones, Associate Director & Head, Bioinformatics, Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, BC Cancer Agency.

Steven Jones is Associate Director and Head of Bioinformatics at Canada’s Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre. His research involves a broad number of genomic analyses - including gene expression profiling in early stages of cancer and investigating bioinformatic approaches to determine cis-regulatory elements.

Prior to the Genome Sciences Centre, Steven Jones was part of the bioinformatics group at the Sanger Institute, Cambridge, where he worked on the C. elegans genome project. Currently, in addition to his affiliation at the GSC, Steven is the Founding Firector of the CIHR/MSFHR Strategic Training Program in Bioinformatics, as well as Director of the GenomeBC Bioinformatics Platform, and a Core member of the Canadian Bioinformatics Workshops.

Michelle Lamberson, Director, Office of Learning Technology, UBC

Dr. Michelle N. Lamberson is the Director of the Office of Learning Technology at UBC. This office provides campus-wide facilitation and coordination for learning technology and distance learning at UBC, and, in partnership with Faculties, is responsible for development and delivery of more than 120 distance education courses. She has 10 years experience with developing materials for use in online instruction, and eight years experience working with faculty on how to use learning technologies to support instruction. Michelle joined UBC from WebCT, where she worked for three years in a variety of roles related to training, event planning and best practice use of the system. Prior to that, she was the Faculty of Science EdTech Coordinator and geology lecturer at UBC. Michelle's discipline area is Geology, receiving her degrees from UBC (Ph.D., 1993), Penn State (M.S., 1987) and Boston University (B.A., 1981). She teaches an online course within the Earth and Ocean Sciences Department.

Richard Smith, Associate Professor, School of Communications, SFU

Richard Smith is an Associate Professor in, and the Associate Director of, the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University. He is also a member of the Centre for Policy Research on Science and Technology (CPROST) at SFU. Smith’s research focus is new media – as a technology, as a business, and as a factor in and outcome of social change. He has an ongoing interest in technology for education, privacy and surveillance in public spaces, online communities, and the wireless information society.

With academic training in communication and law, Dr. Smith has degrees from Carleton University (BA) and Simon Fraser University (MA and PhD). He is a member of the IEEE, the Canadian Communication Association, and the International Association for Management of Technology. He is also the publisher of the Canadian Journal of Communication (CJC-Online)

Jens Haeusser, Manager, IT Security Office, UBC

Jens founded the Information Security Office at the University of British Columbia in November, 2003. He has been an active member of the IT community at UBC for the past 12 years. A passionate advocate for security in a Higher Education setting, he has given a wide range of seminars, workshops, and conference presentations on a variety of IT topics, and has contributed to various articles and books on IT Security. He is a member of the joint Internet2/Educause Security Task Force, and the BCNET Applications Advisory Committee.

Randy Sobie, Research Scientist, Institute of Particle Physics Canada, Adjunct Professor, Department of Physics and Astronomy, UVic

Randy Sobie is a Principal Research Scientist of the Institute of Particle Physics of Canada at the University of Victoria. Besides his interest in particle physics he is actively investigating how Canadian researchers will use a computational and storage Grid to store and analyze the vast data sets from the current and future experiments. Sobie leads a team of researchers at the University of Victoria, the NRC Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics, the NRCan Pacific Forestry Centre and the NRCan Pacific Geoscience Centre who are building a large computer mass storage facility funded by CFI.

Dr. Dennis Salahub, Vice President Research, Univ. of Calgary

Dr. Salahub’s research interests lie in theoretical and computational chemistry, especially Density Functional Theory (DFT) and its applications in materials and biomolecular modeling.

His research group has improved Density Functional methods and software, which has helped to extend the range of applications. New improved functionals have been proposed, tested, and implemented in the code suite deMon, developed in Montreal and now in use in dozens of labs around the world. A fusion of DFT-deMon with other techniques (reaction fields, molecular dynamics, etc.) is underway. Current efforts are aimed at describing reactivity in complex environments: transition-metal catalysis, on the one hand, and enzymatic catalysis, on the other.

Dr. Salahub's overall research goal for the next decade is to develop the theoretical, computational, and conceptual expertise necessary to attain a detailed microscopic understanding of chemical reactions taking place in real, complex environments.

Dr. Richard Keeler, Associate Vice President Research, UVic

Richard K. Keeler attended McGill University where in 1976 he was awarded a BSc with honours in physics. After learning about the new Canadian particle accelerator, TRIUMF, he moved to Vancouver and worked on some of the early experiments at the new facility. He was awarded a PhD by UBC in 1981.

Dr. Keeler then joined a team of scientists at the CERN laboratory in Geneva that built and operated an experiment that discovered the W and Z bosons – particles that are responsible for the forces that power the sun and cause nuclear decay. He returned to Canada in 1983 to take a faculty position at the University of Victoria where he has continued his research at the CERN laboratory. His activities have included membership on an NSERC Grant Selection Committee, Director of the Institute of Particle Physics between 2001 and 2004, member of the International Committee on Future Accelerators, and membership of several committees at TRIUMF, most recently, the Board of Management.

In 2004, he was appointed Associate Vice President for Research at the University of Victoria where he is responsible for the Office of Research Services, regulatory committees, internal research support committees and liaison with provincial and federal granting agencies. He assists with strategic planning, policy formation and special programs.

Dr. Michael Blades, CFI Coordinator, UBC

Michael Blades was born in 1951 in Barrington Passage, Nova Scotia, Canada. He attended Barrington Passage Municipal High School and in 1971 obtained a diploma in Electronic Engineering Technology from the Nova Scotia Institute of Technology and worked for a brief period as an electronic technician at the Defence Research Establishment - Atlantic in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. He received his undergraduate degree at St. Marys University(Halifax) in 1975 and his PhD at the University of Alberta in 1980 under the supervision of Dr. Gary Horlick. He subsequently went to Indiana University to work as a postdoctoral research associate in the laboratory of Dr. Gary Hieftje (1980-81).

Blades is currently a prof. in the Department of Chemistry at the University of British Columbia a position he has held since 1981. His research interests are in the areas of plasma spectroscopy, in particular,the development of new plasma sources and the characterization of excitation conditions in plasmas; laser fluorescence spectroscopy.

Paul Thiel, Director of Advanced Information Technology, BCIT

Paul Thiel has been the director of Group for Advanced Information Technology at BCIT Technology Centre for the past 4 years. Paul has twenty five years of Middle and Senior Management experience within Research and Development for the Information and Communication Technology sector in BC. He has been an integral part of Applied Research and development activities in BC, plus Pacific Northwest, both as an employee of companies including PMC-Sierra Inc., MPR Teltech Ltd and as an independent consultant. He full filled a 3 year secondment as Senior Technology Advisor with the BC Provincial Government and is active in the BC-TIA. Many of the projects Paul has been responsible for included technology transfers, performing due diligence on technology, production interface, sourcing project funding, marketing studies and sales.

Paul is a Graduate of the SFU Executive MBA program, holds a B.Sc. in EE from U of A and is a Professional Engineer. He is a founding member of the Canadian Microelectronics Consortium and has served on many boards and advisory committees throughout his career.

Robert Rankin, Associate Professor, Department of Physics, U of A

Robert Rankin is a Professor with the Department of Physics at the University of Alberta. He studies the solar wind magnetosphere interactions that couple megnetohydrodynamic wave energy into the near Earth (within 10 Earth radii) space environment. ULF magnetohydrodynamic waves are associated with a variety of phenomena observed with ground based instrument arrays in Canada, and by satellites in near-Earth space orbits.

Rachid Ouyed, Associate Professor, Department of Physics, U of C

Dr. Rachid Ouyed is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physics at the University of Calgary. Dr. Ouyed is the founder and head of the CAPCA (Computational Astro-Physics Calgary) group. He applies numerical methods and techniques to solve outstanding problems in physics and astrophysics. His recent research involves high performance computational investigation (using the WestGrid facilities) of the enigmatic Astrophysical Jets and Gamma Ray Bursts.

Brett Gladman, Associate Professor & Canada Research Chair, Department of Physics and Astronomy, UBC

Dr. Brett Gladman is an Associate Professor and a Canada Research Chair at the University of British Columbia. His research interests include the dynamics, evolution and formation of the solar system; observations of small bodies in the solar system; meteoritics; non-linear dynamics and celestial mechanics; and the impact history of the solar system. His main computational research is done on a 170-CPU Athlon/Opteron Beowulf cluster in the Planetary Sciences lab at UBC.

Michael Hrybyk, BCNET

Michael Hrybyk is BCNET's President and CEO. He actively oversees and manages the operations of the society and is responsible for implementing the overall mission and vision of BCNET. He has managed BCNET since 1994. He pioneered the concept of transit exchanges as a method of linking research and education networks to their local communities as well as to national and international peers.

Mr. Hrybyk has been an active member of the technology community in the U.S. and Canada and has been recognized for his efforts in helping to develop the Canadian Internet. In 2003, he received a BC Information Technology Builder Award, and in 2002 was recognized by the University Presidents’ Council for his work creating advanced networks for BC's universities. In 1997, he was named as a builder of Canada's information society by CANARIE and Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.

Mr. Hrybyk also serves on the optical regional advanced networks advisory committee for CA*net4, the next-generation Canadian high-speed research and education advanced network sponsored by CANARIE.

Mr. Hrybyk is currently on leave from the BCIT Technology Centre, where he serves as the Director of the Group for Advanced Information Technology R&D (GAIT). He secured nearly $1 million in funding from the Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the BC Knowledge Fund to establish the BCIT Internet Engineering Lab. The lab, which opened in the spring of 2001, specializes in network-performance evaluation and security conformance. GAIT also conducts research in the areas of software design, instructional multimedia, geographical information> systems, and bioinformatics. Mr. Hrybyk has 25 years of experience with Internet networks, Unix systems, and software development. He has a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University, and held the position of Manager of Computing Systems and Networks there. While at Hopkins, he helped create the first campus-wide Ethernet network in 1986, and connected it to SURANet and NSFNET. He also worked at EDUCOM (now EDUCAUSE) and CREN in Washington, DC, and was responsible for the management of the BITNET national network. Previously, he held positions with the University of Delaware, the University of Maryland Applied Neuroscience Institute, the University of British Columbia and Micros Systems.

Mr. Hrybyk is the past president of the BC Internet Association, and a founding director of the Vancouver Community Network. He is a member of the Internet Society, the Association for Computing Machinery and IEEE. Mr. Hrybyk gives frequent talks on advanced networks throughout North America, and teaches the Computer Networks course in the Bachelor of Technology program at BCIT.

Jim Cranston, CIO, SFU

Jim Cranston is an Engineer, MBA who joined SFU in September, 2001 into the newly created position of Chief Information Office. At SFU the CIO has responsibility for the backbone network and telephone system, administrative systems (PeopleSoft ERP and numerous Departmental systems), institutional services (computer account management, e-mail, web/file space for students/faculty/staff, student computing labs), HPC research support, microcomputer store, desktop support for major administrative units, IT/Network security and establishing computing policies, standards across the University.

Prior to joining SFU Jim was a management consultant for over 26 years whose practice encompassed a wide range of information technology, organizational improvement, strategic/business planning and other assignments for a variety of private and public sector clients in transportation, utilities, oil and gas, government and forest products. During this time he worked throughout North America, South America and South East Asia.

Mark Roman, Executive Director, Uvic

Mark Roman is the Executive Director, Computing and System Services at the University of Victoria.  Prior to joining UVic, he worked at Carleton University in Ottawa.  Mark served at the I.T. Director and Vice President levels in the insurance and banking industries before moving into higher education.  Strategic systems consulting enabled Mark to gather international I.T. experience.  He is currently looking forward to settling in Victoria to enjoy the wonderful weather.

Brian Mackay, CIO, TRU

Brian Mackay is Associate Vice President, IT Services and CIO for Thompson Rivers University, BC’s newest university based in Kamloops, BC with over 25,000 students enrolled in both face-to-face and distance programs.

Brian is currently implementing an IT strategy that supports TRU’s multi-campus and open learning (distance) mandates. IT projects underway include connecting TRU to BCNET, an enterprise administrative systems renewal project, implementing business intelligence tools in all areas at TRU, VoIP and Video over IP, campus wireless bubble expansion, identity management, on-campus residence network services, synchronous and asynchronous learning technologies, disaster recovery, and by January 2007, amalgamating all IT infrastructure in Burnaby and Kamloops in a new facility currently under construction in Kamloops.

Brian has nearly 20 years experience leading IT teams. Before joining TRU, Brian was the CIO at the Open Learning Agency (OLA). Before joining OLA Brian ran global IT for Vancouver-based Teekay Shipping Ltd, the world’s largest oil shipping company and one of BC’s largest public companies. Brian has diplomas in Operations Management and Computer Systems Technology from BCIT as well as an Advanced Diploma in Management and an MBA from Athabasca University.

Ian McLeod, Director Computing Resources, BCIT

Ian McLeod is currently serving his fifth year as Director of Computer Resources at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). In this capacity he is responsible for supporting an evolving learning and teaching environment, applied research, and increasing demands for superior administrative information and systems. Prior to joining BCIT, Mr. McLeod was the Director of Information Management Services at the School District #36 (Surrey), a position he held for 11 years.

A B.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Regina and 27 years of IT experience in several different industries bring a breadth and depth of knowledge on the impact of technology on business, and for the last 15 years, in the “business of education”.

Mr. McLeod also holds a Certified Computing Professional (CCP) designation from the Institute for Certification of Computing Professionals (ICCP), and an Information Systems Professional (I.S.P.) certification from the Canadian Information Processing Society (CIPS).

BCIT is one of Canada’s largest polytechnic institutions, with 5 campus locations, approximately 50,000 annual registrations, over 2,000 faculty and staff, and an annual budget of approximately $214 million.

Keir Novik, PhD, Manager, Information Technology, BCNET

Keir Novik is the IT Manager for BCNET, seconded part-time from SFU Operations and Technical Support. At BCNET he is responsible for core services and supporting the Applications Advisory Committee working groups. Recent projects have been in the areas of videoconferencing, collaboration technology, and identity management. Keir was previously at the University of London, UK, and obtained his PhD in computational physics from the University of Cambridge, UK.

Mike Keating, Manager, Education Services, UVic

Eric Byres, Research Faculty, BCIT

Eric J. Byres is a Professional Engineer and research leader at the Critical Infrastructure Security Centre at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, one of North America's leading research facilities in the field of industrial cyber-security. As well as conducting security research, Eric currently provides consulting to government security agencies, major oil companies and power utilities on cyber protection for critical infrastructures. In October 2003, he testified to Congress on the “Security of Industrial Control Systems in National Critical Infrastructures”.

Eric currently holds the Advanced Systems Institute (ASI) fellowship for industrial network security research. In September 2000 he was awarded the IEEE Outstanding Industry Applications Article Prize for his paper on process control network security and in 2004 he was honored with the Donald P. Eckman Education Award given by the Instrumentation, Systems, and Automation Society (ISA). This award recognizes "outstanding educational and training contributions to the fields of industrial data communications, network security, and fieldbus technology". Most recently he was the recipient of the 2005 “Keith Otto Award” presented by ISA for his article titled, “Insidious threat to control systems”.

Darren Lissimore, Senior Research Associate, BCIT

Nate Kube , Senior Research Associate, BCIT/Wurldtech

Dr. Charles Krasic, Assistant Professor, Computer Science, UBC

I joined the faculty at UBC in August 2003. I did my Ph.D. (2003) at OGI/OHSU, working under Prof. Jonathan Walpole. I received my M.Math (1996) and B.Math (1992) from the University of Waterloo.

Dr. Ljiljana Trajkovic, Professor, School of Engineering Science, SFU

Ljiljana Trajkovic is currently a Professor in the School of Engineering Science at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. From 1995 to 1997, she was a National Science Foundation Visiting Professor in the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Department, University of California, Berkeley. She was a Research Scientist at Bell Communications Research, Morristown, NJ, from 1990 to 1997, and a Member of the Technical Staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, from 1988 to 1990. Her research interests include high-performance communication networks, control of communication systems, computer-aided circuit analysis and design, and theory of nonlinear circuits and dynamical systems. Dr. Trajkovic is currently serving as president-elect of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society. She is Chair of the IEEE Circuits and Systems Society joint Chapter of the Vancouver/Victoria Sections. She was Technical Program Co-Chair of ISCAS 2005 and served as Technical Program Chair and Vice General Co-Chair of ISCAS 2004. She served as an Associate Editor of the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems (Part I) and (Part II), and the IEEE Circuits and Systems Magazine. She is a Fellow of the IEEE.

Dan Vanderster, GridX1 (UVic)

Daniel Vanderster is a PhD student involved with the GridX1 project at the University of Victoria. He completed his undergraduate education in Computer Engineering at the University of Victoria in 2003. Vanderster’s other research interests include investigating resource allocation strategies and quality of service for computational grids, as well as temperature-aware task scheduling for data centres.

Dugan O’Neil, Assistant Professor, Dept of Physics, SFU

Dugan O’Neil is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Physics at Simon Fraser University. He is also a researcher with the D0 Project, an international collaboration studying matter and the interactions of matter in the smallest possible scale. O’Neil’s research interests include high energy physics, fundamental particles and their interactions, proton-antiproton collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron, and high performance computing, data handling and processing.

Christopher Hearty, Associate Professor, Dept of Physics and Astronomy, UBC

Christopher Hearty is an Associate Professor and IPP Research Scientist with the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of British Columbia. Hearty’s area of research is subatomic physics. He recently completed a term as Physics Analysis Coordinator for BaBar, an international collaboration undertaking research at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. He is also the Principle Investigator of the Canadian BaBar group, which includes nine faculty members, five research associates and 14 graduate students.

Roger Moore, Assistant Proffesor, Physics, U of A

Roger Moore is an Assistant Professor with the Department of Physics at the University of Alberta. His main research focus is high energy physics, with a particular interest in studying the properties of the top quark and looking for evidence of Supersymmetry, a possible symmetry between force and matter that could explain the preponderance of cold dark matter observed in the Universe.

Louis Fox, Vice Provost, University of Washington

In his day job, Louis Fox is Vice Provost for Partnerships and Learning Technologies at the University of Washington, where he has been for the last twenty years and has held numerous academic and administrative posts, all with obscure titles. The office he leads connects the research and education expertise of the UW to a range of communities – locally, statewide, nationally, and internationally; and develops and diffuses new learning technologies. Lacking hobbies, Fox also leads a national Internet2 K20 Initiative, which brings together Internet2 members (180 research institutions) with primary and secondary schools, colleges and universities, libraries, and museums to get new technologies—advanced networking tools, content, and applications—into the hands of innovators, across all educational sectors in the United States, as quickly and as “connectedly” as possible, and to link these innovators to similar communities around the globe. At the request of Washington Governor Gary Locke, Fox recently relinquished the last shreds of a normal life and accepted a new role as founding CEO of the Washington Digital Learning Commons, a distance learning initiative to support students and teachers in Washington State.

Shannon Kelly, Program Head and Research Co-Chair, School of Computing and Academic Studies, BCIT

Shannon Kelly holds a Ph.D. in Language and Literary Analysis from the University of Waterloo. She is full-time faculty at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (Communication Department), and enjoys "guest stints" teaching communications and “enlightened” leadership in industry. Her diverse background in both academia and technology includes lecturing for the Faculty of Mathematics at the University of Waterloo, and serving as director of communications for a software company in Vancouver. As a Program Head and Research Co-Chair for her School, Shannon’s current research examines the nature of emerging “virtual” relationships, including possible linguistic, intellectual, and technological frameworks for these relationships.

Robert Grant, Associater Professor, Renewable Resources, UofA

Dr Robert Grant is a Professor in the Department of Renewable Resources at the University of Alberta. Dr Grant’s research interests lie in the area of mathematical modeling of physical, chemical, and biological processes in soil-plant-atmosphere systems as a means of studying resource management and conservation in agricultural, grassland and forest ecosystems under current or future climates. He was awarded the McCalla Professorship in 2005.

Benoit Pirenne, Assistant Director, Information Technology, NEPTUNE Canada Project, UVic

Benoit Pirenne is the Assistant Director, IT, for Neptune Canada. Pirenne joined the NEPTUNE project in October 2004. Prior to his position at NEPTUNE he worked for the European Southern Observatory (ESO) as the head of the Operations Technical Support department. While at the ESO, Pirenne played a key role in the development of the ESO’s end-to-end data system, this system was recently awarded Computer World’s 21st Century Achievement award recognizing world-class IT excellence.

Dr. Andrew Calvert, Associate Professor, SFU

Dr. Andrew Calvert is an Associate Professor specializing in Applied Seismology at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia. Dr. Calvert received his B.A. in Mathematics from Oxford University and his Ph.D in geophysics from Cambridge University. His research interests include the reflection imaging of faults in the Canadian continental crust, the mapping of variations in rock properties using seismic tomography, and the location of non-volcanic tremors caused by slow-slip in the Cascadia subduction zone.

Honourable Murray Coell, Minister of Advanced Education and Minister responsible for Research and Technology

Murray Coell was appointed Minister of Advanced Education and Minister responsible for Research and Technology on June 16, 2005. He previously served as Minister of Community, Aboriginal and Women's Services. He was first elected in 1996 to represent the riding of Saanich North and the Islands and was re elected in 2001 and 2005.

Prior his election to the Legislative Assembly, Murray served on Saanich Municipal Council for 12 years, 6 of them as mayor. From 1989 to 1996, he also served as Chair for the Capital Regional District, the Saanich Police Board and the Capital Regional District Hospital Board, and as Deputy Chair for the Municipal Finance Authority. Murray has worked as both a social worker, specializing in alcohol and drug rehabilitation and services for those with mental disabilities, and a small business owner. He has served as a volunteer for 10 years on the board of Silver Threads Meals on Wheels and for five years on the board of the Queen Alexandra Hospital for Children.

He received his Bachelor of Arts in Social Welfare from the University of Victoria. Murray is committed to the people of Saanich North and the Islands and, if re elected, will continue to serve as their voice in the Legislature.

Brian Corrie, Collaboration and Visualization Coordinator for WestGrid and Collaboration and Visualization Coordinator for IRMACS, SFU

Brian Corrie is the Collaboration and Visualization Coordinator for the WestGrid Collaboration and Visualization research program and SFU’s Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Math and Advanced Computational Science. Brian’s research interests are in advanced collaborative environments, computer graphics, scientific visualization, virtual environments (VE), and coupling computational simulation to visualization. Over the last ten years Brian has been involved in the establishment of three virtual environment facilities including the Virtual Environments lab at the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra, Australia, the Virtual Environments Technology Centre (VETC) at the National Research Council of Canada’s Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Institute in London, Ontario, and the Immersive Media Lab at the New Media Innovation Centre (NewMIC) in Vancouver, British Columbia. He was the Project Leader for the Collaborative VE project at ANU, the Technical Leader at the VETC, and the Focus Area Leader for the Immersive and Collaborative Environments research program at NewMIC. Brian joined WestGrid and IRMACS in 2004 to coordinate and manage their collaborative and visualization research programs and facilities.

Pierre Boulanger, Professor/iCORE Industrial Chair, U of A

Dr. Boulanger graduated from Laval University in Engineering Physics where he received his Masters in Physics. He completed his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering at the University of Montreal. He worked for 18 years at the National Research Council of Canada as a senior research officer. Since July 1st 2001, he has been a professor at the University of Alberta doing research and teaching on virtualized reality systems. He is also an adjunct scientist and principal investigator for new media at TRLabs and at the Banff Centre. In 2005, Dr. Boulanger was awarded an iCORE industrial chair on Collaborative Virtual Environment. He has published more than 150 scientific papers in various Journals and Conferences. He is on the editorial board of two major academic journals. He is also the Director of the Advanced Man Machine Interface Laboratory (http://www.cs.ualberta.ca/ammi).

McLean Mashingaidze-Greavees, President, Founder, The Nimble Company

MMG was the driving creative force behind a revolutionary format that landed 5 Gemini nominations in its inaugural season as well as selection in the prestigious 2003 INPUT TV conference (Denmark) and 2 Leo Awards (including Best Variety Show). His second season followed up with more acclaim including Gemini, Webby and a prestigious Emmy® nomination for Advanced Media. Season three landed four Gemini nominations and a Media Person Of The Year nomination at the Western Canadian Music Awards. Most recently, MMG created and executive produced Burning To Shine, an intimate documentary on the rapper K-OS collaborating with the CBC Radio Orchestra.

The NIMBLE Company signals MMG's return into new media entrepreneurialism, after producing 300+ episodes of music, variety & interactive public broadcasting. Prior to his recent foray in television, MMG was an internet content pioneer in New York City where, as founder of the urban dotcom company VMI, he was twice selected as a Silicon Alley "cyber star" by the Village Voice and Virtual City magazines. His new media work has drawn positive reviews from the likes of The New Yorker, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wired and Crain's Business Weekly. Former clients include filmmaker Spike Lee, music mogul Sean "P-Diddy" Combs and media giant Time Warner. MMG's NYC days also included stints as VP of Content at HBO's Volume.com, Associate New Media Editor at PAPER magazine and contributor to Essence, Vibe, BET Weekend & The Source magazines. As a guest lecturer, MMG has presented at the 2005 PBS Technology Conference, Western Canadian Music Awards, New York University, Columbia University School of Business, Pratt Institute and more.

Paul Amodeo, VP Sales, Syntagma

An accomplished business strategist, entrepreneur and early adopter of emerging technologies, Paul Amodeo has over 25 years of executive level experience in the Information Technology Industry. His early achievements include an exceptional track record of successful projects with network integrators, distributed computing manufacturers and value added telecommunications companies such as The Boeing Company, Computer Sciences Corporation, Datapoint and Bell Canada.

In 1994, Amodeo began importing and distributing internet related networking technologies across Canada, merged with Solunet Inc. USA in 1996 and helped build North American revenues to over U$218M by 2001. More recently, as an independent contractor, he was instrumental in securing a multi-million dollar systems integration project to supply optical network components for the construction of the Government of Alberta’s SuperNet. Paul is currently helping to launch a new breed of Network Services Provider focused on delivering Next Generation IP applications including VoIP Centrex, broadband video (IPTV), audio/video collaboration services, and a range of hybrid technologies for wireless and edge network aggregation.

Amodeo has a degree in Business Administration and Computer Science from Ryerson University, extensive industry training and technical certifications from multiple equipment manufacturers plus security clearance to SECRET with the Canadian federal government.

Bernard Jules, Sr. Project Manager of Internet and New Media Technology, CBC/Radio-Canada

Cathy King, Director, Member Relations, Netera

Cathy King is the Director of Member Relations and Communications for Netera Alliance. Netera operates as an Alberta-based, not-for-profit alliance that coordinates Alberta's inter-institutional information and communication technology (ICT) research infrastructure, in the shared interests of the major research and education organizations in the province. Netera also provides project management to WestGrid (Western Canada Research Grid), a consortia of western Canada research institutions that support high performance computing and collaboration resources for researchers across Canada. Through her work with Netera, King has collaborated with hundreds of researchers and educators at Alberta colleges and universities in the areas of High Performance Computing (HPC), visualization, advanced collaboration, distance education and video streaming.

Graham Mowbray, Executive Director, ACEnet

Graham Mowbray is the Executive Director of ACEnet (Atlantic
Computational Excellence Network). ACEnet is a partnership of 7 Atlantic Canada universities with a mandate to expand over time to serve the entire region. ACEnet relies on the capabilities of the ORANs in Newfoundland & Labrador, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick/PEI. Graham has a broad background in Networks and Information Technology. He was business manager for the first Departmental network for the Government of Newfoundland & Labrador, he participated in business function specific networks such as the Hibernia Oil and Gas project, a Newfoundland Health network and web-based government services delivery in Ireland. Most recently, prior to joining ACEnet he was the principal consultant for Focus Atlantic an IT and Networking consultant responsible for business planning and the development of architectures, strategy and management of regional broadband projects under Industry Canada's BRAND program.

Scott Mah, Director of Communications Technology, University of Washington

Scott Mah is an Assistant Vice President for Computing & Communications Service Delivery & Support at the University of Washington. He is responsible for customer services, technical operations, provisioning, and the engineering teams that support the data center, networking, and telecommunications. He also oversees business continuity efforts, external initiatives, and a growing regional optical network serving the University of Washington, Pacific Northwest Gigapop, Washington State K-20 Network, and other strategic partners.

Marilyn Hay, Manager, Network Engineering, BCNET and Manager, Network Management Centre, UBC

Marilyn Hay is currently serving her fifth year as Manager of the Network Management Centre at the University of British Columbia Institute in Vancouver, BC. In this capacity she is responsible for the operation, support, design, and engineering for the UBC campus networks including data, telephony, and video. BCNET contracts all of its Network Engineering and Operational support through UBC. Marilyn reports within BCNET as the Manager of Network Engineering and this team spans the peer IT Networking groups of BCNET’s member universities.

Marilyn has 20 years experience in computing and network support while completing a Computing Technology Diploma at SAIT in Calgary and a B.Sc. in Computer Science from UBC.

Gary Finley, Director of Networking, Netera Alliance

I am the Director of Networking for Netera Alliance Inc., the non-profit consortium that manages Alberta's high speed research and education network. Our next-generation network connects a number of Alberta universities and colleges at gigabit speeds. In addition to carrying ultra-broadband routed TCP/IP traffic, NeteraNet features the ability to allocate dedicated wide-area optical circuits (called lightpaths) for demanding research applications. In cooperation with the CA*net4 national research network, Netera's lightpath services support the WestGrid Project, which links high performance computing and networked storage resources at eight academic institutions in Alberta and B.C.

Simon Alban, Senior Instructor in the Division of Biomolecular and Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, UBC

Simon P. Alban, University of British Columbia, is a Senior Instructor in the Division of Biomolecular and Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. He currently teaches a third-year lecture/laboratory course in pharmaceutical analysis and has research interests in scholarly teaching and the scholarship of teaching and learning with a focus on learning-centered education in the basic pharmaceutical sciences. Simon is currently involved in an NSF funded pilot program to evaluate the use WWU’s Integrated Laboratory Network (ILN) for implementation at UBC. His most recent articles on the use of remote instrumentation include: A Learning-Centered Course in Pharmaceutical Analysis, [Am J Pharm. Ed. 2004:68(5):article 114] and Creating Authentic Learning Activities in Pharmaceutical Instrumental Analysis: Using the Integrated Laboratory Network for Remote Access to Scientific Instrumentation [Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (2005, 9(2):4-19)].

Devon A. Cancilla, Director of Scientific Technical Services, WWU

Devon A. Cancilla, is the Director of Scientific Technical Services and an associate professor of environmental science at Western Washington University where he teaches environmental chemistry. He has been the lead investigator in the development of the Integrated Laboratory Network (ILN), a project currently funded by the National Science Foundation to use remote instrumentation in the classroom and laboratory. The ILN project won a Most Effective Practice Award from the Sloan Consortium in 2004. Recent publications of this work appear in the Journal of Chemical Education (2004, 81(12):1809-1813) and the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks (2005, 9(2):4-19).

Dr. David Kaufman, Director, Learning & Instructional Development Centre and Professor, Faculty of Education, SFU

Dr. Kaufman is the 1998 recipient of Dalhousie University's Instructional Leadership Award for his efforts in promoting and enhancing teaching. In July, 2001, he was appointed as Director, Learning & Instructional Development Centre at Simon Fraser University and more recently, Professor in the Faculty of Education. Besides his administrative duties, he continues academic work in the areas of educational research, teaching faculty and graduate students, supervising graduate students, presenting at professional meetings, and serving on university committees. In October, 2004, Dr. Kaufman was awarded an SSHRC INE Collaborative Research Initiative grant of $3 million for four years on Simulation and Advanced Gaming Environments (SAGE) for Learning.