NEWS BRIEFS

Santiago, CHILE — The first high-performance Internet link between North and South America dedicated to research and education was inaugurated at a ceremony in Santiago, Chile. REUNA in Chile and Internet2 in the United States have established a link that connects their respective countries’ high-performance research and education networks.

Attended by nearly 300 leaders from the research and education community in Chile, the ceremony included a speech by President Ricardo Lagos of Chile as well as a live video presentation from the United States by Douglas Van Houweling, President and CEO leading Internet2 that used the new network link.

This new connection will help enable collaboration among researchers and educators at universities in the two countries, including access to Gemini South, a new advanced telescope now being built in Chile through an international collaboration. The Gemini project consists of twin telescopes in both hemispheres that together will provide unprecedented coverage of the Northern and Southern skies. High-performance network links are critical to the observatories’ joint operation.

The National University Network is a non-profit consortium of 19 leading Chilean universities plus the National Commission for Science and Technology. Its mission is the creation and development of networks and services in IT aimed at supporting participation in the Information Society. Reuna introduced Internet in Chile in 1992. Reuna¥s high-speed network, REUNA2, is an ATM network of 155 Mbps. across the country. For more information see: http://www.reuna.cl

Internet2 is a consortium of leading US universities working in partnership with industry and government to accelerate the creation of tomorrow’s Internet. Internet2 is recreating the partnership among academia, industry and government that fostered today/s Internet in its infancy. For more information, see: http://www.internet2.edu/

============================================================