SHORT TAKES

NEAL BERTRAM WINS IEEE AWARD

San Diego professor and San Diego Supercomputer Center and Cal-(IT)2 researcher H. Neal Bertram, a leading researcher in the field of recording physics and micromagnetics, has won the 2003 IEEE Reynold B. Johnson Information Storage Award. The prize is awarded each year for outstanding achievement in the field of information storage, mainly computer storage. Bertram was cited for “fundamental and pioneering contributions to magnetic recording physics research.”

“I am very pleased that the IEEE has chosen to honor me in this way,” said Bertram, a professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UCSD ‘s Jacobs School of Engineering. “I will accept it in the name of my colleagues who have contributed so much to the fundamental work we are all doing on the physics of magnetic recording.” Bertram holds an endowed chair in UCSD’s Center for Magnetic Recording Research. He is also a Fellow of the San Diego Supercomputer Center. “This honor is richly deserved because Neal has helped pave the way for continuing improvements in magnetic storage devices,” said CMRR Director Paul Siegel. “If we are going to continue doubling the capacity of hard disk drives every year, we first need to understand the physics.”

At UCSD, Bertram directs a research program in the physics of magnetic recording, including studies of polycrystalline thin film media, write and read transducers, fine-particle tape systems, and general analyses of ultimate limits in ultra-high-density recording. Specific studies involve high-speed dynamic magnetization reversal, effects of thermal excitation, and fundamentals of dynamic relaxation. In these areas, his Ph.D. students engage in both experimental and theoretical studies of basic issues in high-density magnetic recording, including noise phenomena, nonlinearities, dynamic processes, and thermally induced relaxation. Much of this work involves large- scale numerical simulations, for which he has long used SDSC high-performance computing resources, including the IBM Blue Horizon platform. Bertram has created graduate courses in magnetic recording theory, analysis of recording materials, and magnetic recording measurements.

Bertram earned his Ph.D. in physics from Harvard University in 1968. From then until 1984, he worked for AMPEX Corporation. He joined the UCSD faculty in 1985, and now leads CMRR’s recording physics and micromagnetics research. He is the author of Theory of Magnetic Recording (Cambridge University Press, 1994). Bertram has been an IEEE Fellow since 1987. In 2000, he was the co- recipient (with Seagate Research’s Roy W. Gustafson) of the Technical Achievement Award from the National Storage Industry Consortium for “modeling and system simulations that supplied the insights needed to develop specifications for a realizable 100 Gb/sq.in. hard disk-drive system.”

The IEEE Reynold B. Johnson Information Storage Award was established by the IEEE in 1991 as part of its Technical Field Awards program. The award is sponsored by IBM, in honor of a pioneer of magnetic disk technology: Reynold Johnson, the founding manager (in 1952) of the IBM San Jose Research and Engineering Laboratory, where IBM’s storage research and development was centered. — Doug Ramsey (JSOE) and Merry Maisel.

STORAGENETWORKS GETS NEW CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER

StorageNetworks, Inc., a leading provider of storage management software and services, announced that David Dew has joined as the company’s Chief Technology Officer. Mr. Dew will drive the company’s technology strategy and future product direction and will report to Paul Flanagan, StorageNetworks’ Chief Operating and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Dew will replace Bill Miller, StorageNetworks’ Co-founder and former Chief Technical Officer, who will be leaving the company and stepping down from its Board of Directors to pursue other interests.

“David is a storage software thought leader having developed one of the industry’s first storage resource management software solutions,” stated Flanagan. “He has extensive experience identifying emerging trends and developing innovative software solutions to address customer needs. As we develop new products and continue to define our product roadmap, David’s input and experience will be integral to our success.”

Mr. Dew brings more than 12 years of expertise from the storage industry including extensive experience in Storage Area Networks (SANs), Networked Attached Storage (NAS) and Direct Attached Storage (DAS) technologies. Prior to joining StorageNetworks, Mr. Dew was the Director of BMC Software’s Storage Solutions Development, a leading provider of enterprise management software. While at BMC, Mr. Dew was responsible for product development, including the company’s application-based storage resource management software product. Prior to joining BMC, Mr. Dew held various management positions at Boole & Babbage where he created one of the industry’s first SRM products.

“Since co-founding StorageNetworks in 1998, Bill Miller has been dedicated to delivering the highest quality software and services to our customers. I would like to thank Bill for his considerable contributions to the company. We wish him well in his future endeavors,” concluded Peter Bell, StorageNetworks Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

About StorageNetworks, Inc.

StorageNetworks, Inc. is a leading provider of storage management software and services to enable the enterprise storage utility. StorageNetworks robust software, combined with the company’s proven process methodologies and interoperability expertise, enable enterprises, network service providers, and system integrators to manage their storage environments with increased levels of utilization, availability and recoverability. StorageNetworks, headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, has offices worldwide.

Web site: http://www.storagenetworks.com

THE ISCB ELECTS NEW BOARD MEMBERS

The International Society for Computational Biology has announced the election of six new board members who were voted in during an annual Board meeting, held August 5, 2002 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The previous Board of Directors elected the new Board members based on nominations gathered from the membership. The new members were elected to three-year terms as four other members completed their service to the Society.

“I am pleased to welcome the new Board members. They demonstrate the depth, scientifically and geographically, of the Society as a whole, and will particularly enhance the voice of the Society in their regions while providing an international representation on the Board of Directors,” said ISCB President Philip E. Bourne.

NEW BOARD MEMBERS

— Steven Brenner, Ph.D.,assistant professor plant and microbial biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, USA.

— Rita Casadio, Ph.D., professor of biophysics, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.

— Roderic Guigo, Ph.D., associated professor at the Institut Municipal d’Investigacio Medica, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Centre de Regulacio Genomica, Barcelona, Spain.

— Goran Neshich, Ph.D., group leader, EMBRAPA Informatica Agropecuaria, Campinas, Brazil.

— Shoba Ranganathan, Ph.D., associate professor of biochemistry and biological sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore.

— Burkhard Rost, Ph.D., associate professor of biochemistry and molecular physics, Columbia University, New York City, USA.

The ISCB Board of Directors consists of 30 members, who lead committees on awards, conferences, education, finance, nominations, and publications. Society members nominate potential Board members, which are then elected by the current board during the annual meeting of the Board of Directors. During this year’s annual meeting, the ISCB Board of Directors also voted to maintain the administrative office of the Society in San Diego, California, through 2005, as well as to promote Administrative Officer BJ Morrison McKay to the position of Executive Officer.

About ISCB

The ISCB is a scholarly society dedicated to advancing the scientific understanding of living systems through computation, with an emphasis on the role of computing and informatics in advancing molecular biology. Founded in 1997, the ISCB serves a global membership with the goal of increased understanding of the significance of bioinformatics in the scientific community, government, and the public at large. More about the ISCB can be found at: http://www.iscb.org/.

MCNC GETS NEW SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE CEO

MCNC, formerly the Microelectronics Center of North Carolina, named Dr. Charles L. Kneifel as Special Assistant to the CEO. Dr. Kneifel begins on September 16, 2002.

“Charles Kneifel is a strategic thinker who thrives working in fast-paced, high growth environments,” said David Rizzo, MCNC president and chief executive officer. “I’m confident that HPCC customers and employees will appreciate and benefit from the strong leadership that Charley brings to the company.”

In this role, Kneifel, 39, will act on behalf of Rizzo to coordinate the activities of the High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) division. He will review and approve major technical decisions and assist with the design of a proper internal organization structure to fulfill the HPCC mission.

Kneifel will also interface with the high-end computing user community. A major portion of his responsibility will be to ensure that the division is delivering top quality service to its customers while simultaneously advancing its business strategies.

“MCNC has been a leader in the electronic and information technology industries for many years,” stated Dr. Kneifel. “I’m very pleased to be joining the HPCC division as they focus on strategically reorganizing their business to continue to deliver value to the North Carolina research and higher education communities.”

Kneifel was chosen for his expertise in network design and implementation coupled with his experience within research universities and his broad management track record. Most recently he served as Senior Director of Engineering after being promoted from Director of Computing Services/Systems Engineering at Interpath Communications, based in Morrisville, North Carolina.

In the former capacity, Kneifel was responsible for leadership and direction of the Engineering Organization. His primary responsibilities included overseeing the architectural and technical review of customer systems and infrastructure systems and overseeing vendor audits.

Before joining Interpath, Kneifel spent eight years in research and administration at various universities and national laboratories.

Kneifel holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He earned his doctorate in physical chemistry from State University of New York at Stony Brook.

About MCNC

MCNC is a nonprofit corporation that offers cost-effective access to advanced electronic and information technologies and services for businesses, state and federal government agencies and North Carolina’s education communities. MCNC operates a research and economic development division and a high performance computing and communications division. Additional information on MCNC can be found at http://www.mcnc.org.

CORRENT GETS NEW BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEMBER

Corrent Corp., which in less than 15 months designed and delivered a family of gigabit-speed security processors that off-load and accelerate SSL and IPSec transactions, announced it has elected networking, silicon and telecom industry veteran Ajit Medhekar to its board of directors.

The company currently offers three silicon products and a host of board solutions that ensure data security without slowing network processing.

Medhekar has more than 20 years’ experience with three successful start-ups of silicon and systems for computing, networking and telecommunications. Medhekar has extensive experience in growing fledgling businesses to multimillion- dollar corporations.

“We are thrilled that Ajit has joined our board. His extensive experience and business acumen, especially in the design and delivery of successful silicon products, are incredibly valuable,” said Richard Takahashi, president and CEO of Corrent Corp.

“Ajit’s extensive knowledge of our customers, the venture capital community and the public equity markets will help us continue our momentum as the leading supplier of Internet data security and acceleration processors.”

Medhekar founded and was chairman and chief executive officer of next- generation switching innovator empowerTel Networks, which was acquired by IP Unity earlier this year. Under his direction, empowerTel Networks grew to more than 250 employees and raised $54 million in venture funding.

Medhekar was also the founder and chairman of Lara Networks, which developed silicon-based network search engines for switching and routing equipment vendors including Cisco, Juniper, Nortel, and others. Lara Networks was acquired by Cypress Semiconductor in July 2001.

Other experience includes leading Alliance Semiconductor from a start-up through a public offering; managing engineering at AMD/MMI; and designing memory chips at Synertek/Honeywell and National Semiconductor. Medhekar has authored over a dozen patents and holds a B.S.E.E. and an M.S.E.E. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“As consumers and businesses continue to increase their reliance on the Internet, the security and processing efficiency offered by Corrent are absolutely critical,” said Medhekar. “Serving on Corrent’s board is an exciting opportunity to help this company continue to deliver effective networking solutions and reach the next level of success.”

About Corrent Corp.

Corrent Corp. is a semiconductor company providing high-performance Internet silicon and system solutions for both public and private IP networks. Corrent’s modular architecture performs encryption at the fastest data rates in the industry — doubling the performance of existing solutions.

With three products in the market currently, Corrent delivers complete sub- system solutions to network OEM providing ease of integration and time-to- market advantages.

A recent winner of Microprocessor Report’s Security Processor of the Year Award, Corrent’s products are designed for use in networking infrastructure equipment such as routers, switches, Web servers, access concentrators, and dedicated IP-services systems. For more information visit http://www.corrent.com.

THINK DYNAMICS STRENGTHENS TEAM WITH INDUSTRY HEAVYWEIGHT

Think Dynamics Inc. ( http://www.thinkdynamics.com ), which develops software that automates the management of data center resources, announced that autonomic computing expert, William Van Symons, has joined its team. Mr. Van Symons will play a strategic role within the organization, sharing his insights and experience with the Think Dynamics team.

Mr. Van Symons brings to Think Dynamics an impressive track record, having focused on evolving data center and server technologies at IBM over the past 25 years. Most recently, Mr. Van Symons was a Global Executive within IBM’s eServer Marketing group, where he focused on strategies for Grid computing and Project eLiza – a computing initiative to integrate self-managing, self- healing capabilities into its servers. Prior to this, Mr. Van Symons occupied several other senior marketing roles within IBM’s enterprise server division. His record is further distinguished by several awards recognizing his contributions and achievements.

“Think Dynamics is committed to maintaining its position as a thought leader in automated resource management computing by continuing to build its team from the best and the brightest in its industry sector,” remarked Alan McMillian, CEO of Think Dynamics. “As a recognized expert on self-managing server technologies, Van Symons is a natural fit. We’re delighted to have him aboard.”

“Think Dynamics leads the market with its innovative approach to data center management” said Van Symons. “The company’s created a solid, comprehensive offering and is backed by an organization rich with technical expertise and marketing savvy. Think Dynamics will achieve great things in the data center marketplace. I welcome the opportunity to work with Think Dynamics and look forward to its promising future.”

ABOUT THINK DYNAMICS, INC.

Think Dynamics ( http://www.thinkdynamics.com ) develops software that automates the management of data center resources, enabling senior IT executives to reduce costs, improve service levels, increase business/IT alignment and enhance business agility. From complete automated application provisioning through to utility computing – Think Dynamics offers a comprehensive suite of applications to tackle today’s toughest IT challenges. Founded in September 2000, Think Dynamics is headquartered in Toronto with offices in Atlanta, Boston and San Francisco. Think Dynamics is a privately held company, backed by Brightspark Ventures, CDP Capital – Technology Ventures and OMERS.

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