Editing Ian Foster (computer scientist)

{{Short description|New Zealand-American computer scientist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Use New Zealand English|date=May 2021}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name = Ian Foster
|image =
|caption =
|birth_date = {{birth date and age|1959|1|1|df=y}}
|birth_place = [[Wellington]], New Zealand
|death_date =
|death_place =
|nationality = New Zealand
|field = {{Plainlist|
*[[Computer Science]]
*[[Grid computing]]<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1177/109434200101500302|title=The Anatomy of the Grid: Enabling Scalable Virtual Organizations|journal=International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications|volume=15|issue=3|pages=200–222|year=2001|author=Foster, I.|arxiv=cs/0103025|bibcode=2001cs........3025F|s2cid=28969310}}</ref>}}
|known_for  = {{Plainlist|
*[[Strand (programming language)|Strand]]
*[[Grid Computing]]
*Globus Toolkit
*[[Globus service]]}}
|work_institution = {{Plainlist|
*[[University of Chicago]]
*[[Argonne National Laboratory]]}}
|alma_mater =  {{Plainlist|
*[[University of Canterbury]]
*[[Imperial College London]] (PhD)}}
|doctoral_advisor = [[Keith Clark (computer scientist)|Keith Clark]]
|doctoral_students = <!-- only if notable and have some source -->
|thesis_title = Parlog as a systems programming language
|thesis_year = 1988
|thesis_url = https://archive.org/details/parlogasasystemp037550mbp
|prizes = {{Plainlist|
*[[Lovelace Medal]] <small>(2002)</small>
*[[Gordon Bell Prize]]
*[[Tsutomu Kanai Award]] <small>(2011)</small>
*[[International Parallel and Distributed Processing Symposium#IEEE Computer Society Charles Babbage Award|Charles Babbage Award]] <small>(2019)</small>}}
|website = {{Plainlist|
*{{URL|http://ianfoster.typepad.com}}
*{{URL|https://www.cs.uchicago.edu/directory/ian-foster}}
*{{URL|http://labs.globus.org}}
}}
}}

'''Ian Tremere Foster''' (born 1 January 1959) is a New Zealand-American computer scientist. He is a distinguished fellow, senior scientist, and director of the Data Science and Learning division at [[Argonne National Laboratory]], and a professor in the department of computer science at the [[University of Chicago]].<ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1177/109434209701100205|title=Globus: A Metacomputing Infrastructure Toolkit|journal=International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications|volume=11|issue=2|pages=115|year=1997|author1=Foster, I.|author2=Kesselman, C.|citeseerx=10.1.1.48.6898|s2cid=438757}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|doi=10.1002/cpe.3101|title=Emerging Computational Methods for the Life Sciences Workshop 2012|journal=Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience|volume=26|issue=6|pages=1231|year=2014|author1=Qiu, J.|author2=Foster, I.|author3=Goble, C.|s2cid=26141575|authorlink3=Carole Goble|doi-access=}}</ref>

==Education and career==
Foster was born in [[Wellington]], New Zealand, in 1959. He was educated at [[Wellington College, Wellington|Wellington College]] and the [[University of Canterbury]], followed by the [[Department of Computing, Imperial College London|Department of Computing]], [[Imperial College London]].

From 2006 to 2016, he was director of the Computation Institute (CI), a joint project between the [[University of Chicago]], and [[Argonne National Laboratory]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Ian Foster appointed to third term as director of Computation Institute|url=https://news.uchicago.edu/story/ian-foster-appointed-third-term-director-computation-institute|date=24 August 2012|publisher=University of Chicago|access-date=10 January 2020}}</ref> 
CI brings together computational scientists and discipline leaders to work on projects with computation as a key component.

He is currently Director of the Data Science and Learning Division at [[Argonne National Laboratory]], a unit established to tackle advanced scientific problems where data analysis and artificial intelligence can provide critical insights and accelerate discovery.

==Honors==
Foster's honours include the [[Gordon Bell Prize]] for high-performance computing (2001),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mcs.anl.gov/~pieper/SUCCESS/gordon01.html|title=Researchers Win Gordon Bell Prize for 2001|publisher=Argonne National Laboratory|access-date=10 January 2020}}</ref> the [[Lovelace Medal]] of the [[British Computer Society]] (2002),<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www-news.uchicago.edu/releases/02/021021.lovelace.shtml|title=Ian Foster to receive 2002 Lovelace Medal from British Computer Society|publisher=University of Chicago|date=21 October 2002|access-date=10 January 2020}}</ref> an honorary [[Doctor of Science]] from the University of Canterbury in 2005,<ref>{{cite web |title=Hon doc – Professor Ian Foster |url= https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/alumni/our-alumni/uc-hon-docs/ian-foster/ |publisher=[[University of Canterbury]] |access-date=18 May 2021}}</ref> the IEEE [[Tsutomu Kanai Award]] (2011),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.computer.org/profiles/ian-foster|title=Ian T. Foster|date=8 June 2018 |publisher=IEEE Computer Society|access-date=10 January 2020}}</ref> the IEEE Computer Society [[Charles Babbage]] Award,<ref>{{cite news|date=7 March 2019|access-date=10 January 2020|url= https://www.computer.org/press-room/2019-news/2019-charles-babbage-award-ian-foster|title=Ian Foster Named Recipient of 2019 IEEE Computer Society Charles Babbage Award|publisher=IEEE Computer Society}}</ref> (with [[Carl Kesselman]]) the IEEE Computer Society Harry H Goode Memorial Award (2020),<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.computer.org/press-room/2020-news/foster-and-kesselman-to-receive-2020-ieee-cs-society-goode-memorial-award|title=Dr. Ian Foster and Dr. Carl Kesselman to Receive 2020 IEEE Computer Society Harry H. Goode Memorial Award|publisher=IEEE Computer Society|date=3 March 2020|access-date=16 March 2021}}</ref> the [[IEEE Internet Award]] (2023),{{efn|Alongside [[Carl Kesselman]]; the citation reads: "For contributions to the design, deployment, and application of practical Internet-scale global computing platforms.<ref name="IEEE Internet Award">{{cite web |title=IEEE Internet Award |url=https://www.ieee.org/content/dam/ieee-org/ieee/web/org/about/awards/recipients/internet-rl.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211216193827/https://www.ieee.org/content/dam/ieee-org/ieee/web/org/about/awards/recipients/internet-rl.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 December 2021 |publisher=[[Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers]] |access-date=29 December 2022}}</ref>}}<ref name="IEEE Internet Award" /> and the ACM-IEEE CS Ken Kennedy Award (2022).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://awards.acm.org/kennedy|title=Ian Foster Recognized with ACM-IEEE CS Ken Kennedy Award}}</ref> He was elected Fellow of the [[British Computer Society]] in 2001, [[Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science]] in 2003,<ref>{{cite news|url=http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/031106/aaas.shtml|author=Steve Koppes|title=Nine on faculty elected 2003 AAAS fellows|work=University of Chicago Chronicle|volume=78|issue=4|date=6 November 2003}}</ref> and in 2009, a Fellow of the [[Association for Computing Machinery]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.anl.gov/mcs/article/argonnes-ian-foster-named-fellow-of-the-association-for-computing-machinery|title=Argonne's Ian Foster named Fellow of the Association for Computing Machinery|publisher=Argonne National Laboratory|date=1 December 2009|access-date=10 January 2020}}</ref> who named him the inaugural recipient of the high-performance parallel and distributed computing (HPDC) achievement award in 2012.<ref>{{cite web|title=Achievement Award|work=HPDC 2012 web site|url=http://www.hpdc.org/2012/program/keynote-speakers/#achievement-award-talk|access-date=10 January 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=20 years of grid computing|author=Ian Foster|work=HPDC 2012 award talk|date=22 June 2012|url=http://www.hpdc.org/2012/site/files/HPDC2012-Foster.pdf|access-date=10 January 2020}}</ref> In 2017, he was recognised with the Euro-Par Achievement Award.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Euro-Par Achievement Award|url=https://2020.euro-par.org/?q=node/7|access-date=10 January 2020}}</ref>

==Research==
Foster's research focuses on the acceleration of discovery in a network using [[distributed computing]]. With [[Carl Kesselman]] and Steve Tuecke, Foster coined the term [[grid computing]]: techniques for data-intensive, multi-institution collaboration that paved the way for [[cloud computing]]. Methods and software developed under his leadership advanced discovery in areas as high energy physics, environmental science, and biomedicine.

For example, grid computing was credited by [[CERN]] director [[Rolf-Dieter Heuer]] as one of the elements essential for the 2012 discovery of the [[Higgs boson]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Strong hints of the Higgs – live from CERN|work=Gridcast blog|date=4 July 2012|url=http://gridtalk-project.blogspot.com/2012/07/strong-hints-of-higgs-live-from-cern.html|access-date=10 January 2020}}</ref>

His research has also resulted in the development of techniques, tools and [[algorithms]] for high-performance [[distributed computing]] and [[parallel computing]]. His Globus Toolkit project encouraged collaborative computing for engineering, business and other fields. In March 2004, Foster co-founded [[Univa]] Corporation to commercialize the technology.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Form D: Notice of Sale of Securities|publisher=US Securities and Exchange Commission|date=25 August 2005|url=https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/vprr/0506/05064897.pdf|access-date=10 January 2020}}</ref>

==Publications==
*''Strand: New Concepts for Parallel Programming''. [[Prentice Hall]], 1990. 
*''[http://www.mcs.anl.gov/~itf/dbpp/ Designing and Building Parallel Programs]''. [[Addison-Wesley]], 1994.
*''The Grid: Blueprint for a New Computing Infrastructure''. [[Morgan Kaufmann]], 1998.
*''The Sourcebook of Parallel Computing''. [[Morgan Kaufmann]], 2003.
*''The Grid 2, Second Edition: Blueprint for a New Computing Infrastructure''. [[Elsevier]], 2004.
*''[http://www.bigdatasocialscience.com Big Data and Social Science]''. [[CRC Press]], 2016.
*''[https://cloud4scieng.org Cloud Computing for Science and Engineering]''. [[MIT Press]], November 2017.

==See also==
*[[List of honorary doctors of the University of Canterbury]]

==Footnotes==
{{Notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{GoogleScholar|VGoSakQAAAAJ}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, Ian}}
[[Category:1959 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:New Zealand computer scientists]]
[[Category:People educated at Wellington College, Wellington]]
[[Category:Alumni of the Department of Computing, Imperial College London]]
[[Category:University of Canterbury alumni]]
[[Category:University of Chicago faculty]]
[[Category:Researchers in distributed computing]]
[[Category:New Zealand emigrants to the United States]]