"Collectively we've built a wide range of capabilities supporting global research and science."
Where did you grow up? Were you always interested in your current field?
I grew up in Canberra after we moved here in 1975 the day before the Whitlam government was dismissed.
I've been interested in computers and networks since the late 70's and was fortunate to grow up in a time where the ACT secondary colleges were all connected to a central time sharing PDP-11 minicomputer running the RSTS/E operating system.
Are you working from home? If so, how's it going?
Like most of the team I've been working from home during the height of the pandemic and then back into the office when we were able to return.
Do you have kids/pets at home that are helping/hindering?
We've got five cats Cleo, Clarance, Ceaser, Lucy and Connie who have very much enjoyed having me home so they can dance on my keyboard when I'm not paying them enough attention.
What projects are you working on?
In addition to the ongoing maintenance of the Cloud services we operate, the team and I have been working on making new cloud research environments available for the Australian research community.
What do you want people to know about the work that you do?
As the Co-Chair of the Asia Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) Program Committee the organisation which connects the National Research and Education Networks, Research Clouds and HPC facilities around the Asia Pacific region I've been doing a lot of work translating the organisation and technical logistics to run the next APAN meeting in August as a virtual event.
Why do you love what you do?
I've enjoyed working on interesting problems with clever people locally and around the world for several decades and collectively we've built a wide range of capabilities supporting global research and science. I've lead the judging panel for the Global Data Mover Challenge for several years advancing the transfer of massive science data sets over advanced networks with colleagues from Asia, the USA and Europe.
What is one specific thing that you have achieved (research or otherwise) that you are most proud of?
Something I'm particularly proud of is my decade long membership of the management committee of the Intra Commonwealth Optical Network (ICON) which connects the Australian Commonwealth government in Canberra which grew to become one of the worlds densest fibre optical networks with over 60,000km of dark fibre.
