Jim Gray of Microsoft will discuss the challenges of publishing, gathering and mining online scientific data Oct. 6 as part of the School of Information Sciences and Technology’s Distinguished Lecture Series.
Gray, a senior researcher and manager of Microsoft’s Bay Area Research Center, specializes in database and transaction processing computer systems. He has helped transform the capacity of computer databases into the current systems that are capable of serving the needs of millions.
His current work focuses on building supercomputers with commodity components which will make supercomputing readily available to all.
Gray also is building online databases that will put astronomy data on the Internet. When complete, the Internet will be the world’s best telescope, according to Gray.
His talk, “Online Science: The Worldwide Telescope as a Prototype for the New Computational Science,” explores that effort and is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. in the Cybertorium, Information Sciences and Technology Building.
For his work on transaction processing, Gray received the prestigious ACM Turing Award, often considered the Nobel Prize for computer science, which honors contributions of lasting and major technical importance to the computer field.
