AISTI Sixth Annual Miniconference Biographies (in alphabetical order):

Biographies (in alphabetical order):

Stephen Abram, MLS, is President 2004-2005 of the Canadian Library Association and Vice President Innovation of Sirsi Corporation. He has been VP of Corporate Development for Micromedia ProQuest and Publisher Electronic Information for Thomson. He ran libraries for Coopers & Lybrand and Hay Group. Stephen has been listed by Library Journal as one of the top 50 people influencing the future of libraries and librarianship. He has been awarded SLA's John Cotton Dana Award as well as being a Fellow of the SLA. He was Canadian Special Librarian of the Year and Alumni of the Year for the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto where he is adjunct professor teaching management of libraries. He gives over 45 international keynote talks annually to library and information industry conferences as well as writing several columns for library and information professional periodicals.

Jeffery Antol is an Aerospace Technologist in the Architectures, Missions, and Science Branch at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC). Mr. Antol is responsible for developing advanced spacecraft concepts and space mission scenarios and for conducting systems analyses to ensure that these concepts meet the requirements of future NASA space objectives. In particular, he recently directed the LaRC Mars Tumbleweed Rover study, in which wind-driven mobility for a Mars rover was investigated. He was responsible for science requirements definition, mission scenario development, systems analysis, and overall programmatic aspects of the effort. Mr. Antol also directed Space Theme 2: Science from New Perspectives, of the Revolutionary Aerospace Systems Concepts (RASC) program. The primary focus of Space Theme 2 was a multi-center study "Earth Observation Telescope at L2", an investigation of an Earth atmospheric research platform at the 2nd Earth-Sun Lagrange point (L2).

Blaise Cronin is the Rudy Professor of Information Science at Indiana University, Bloomington. He was appointed Dean of the School of Library and Information Science in 1991. He received his M.A. from Trinity College Dublin and his Ph.D. and D.S.Sc. from the Queen's University of Belfast. In 1997, he was awarded the degree Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) honoris causa by Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh. From 1985-1991, he held the Chair of Information Science and was Head of the Department of Information Science at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. He has held visiting professorships at Manchester Metropolitan University and Napier University, Edinburgh. Cronin's research interests include scholarly communication, scientometrics and collaboration in science. He has published extensively on these and related subjects: his books include The Citation Process (1984), The Scholar's Courtesy (1995) and The Hand of Science (2005) and, in somewhat lighter vein, Pulp Friction (2003) and Jeremiad Jottings (2004). He is Editor of the Annual Review of Information Science and Technology.

Peter A. Hook is currently a doctoral student at Indiana University-Bloomington where he is a member of Dr. Katy Börner's Information Visualization Laboratory. He has a J.D. from the University of Kansas (1997) and a M.S.L.I.S. from The University of Illinois (2000). Prior to doctoral study, he was a law librarian for four years. His primary research focus is information visualization. Particular interests include the visualization of knowledge organization systems, concept mapping, and the spatial navigation of bibliographic data in which the underlying structural organization of the domain is conveyed to the user. Additional interests include social network theory, knowledge organization systems, and legal bibliometrics and informatics.

Rick Luce is the Research Library Director at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He is an information technology pioneer internationally known for the cutting-edge digital library at Los Alamos. Rick was appointed Project Leader of the "Library Without Walls" digital library program in 1994 and he received a Los Alamos Distinguished Performance Award in 1996. The Library Without Walls was the first digital library program to deliver large-scale databases via the web (1994), interactive personal alerts (1995), and content linking (1996). Rick holds numerous digital library and electronic publishing positions, including Senior Advisor for Max Planck Society's Center for Information Management, the Executive Board of NISO, the UC Digital Media Innovations Program, and Course Director of the International School on the Digital Library and E-Publishing for Science and Technology in Geneva. He is a co-founder of the Open Archives Initiative and the Alliance for Innovation in Science and Technology Information consortium.

Kurt Severance is a senior computer engineer at NASA Langley Research Center where he has become a highly recognized expert on advanced scientific data visualization. He works closely with the research community at NASA to develop and apply state-of-the-art computer graphics and virtual reality technology to visualize complex datasets from a variety of disciplines including atmospheric sciences, aeronautics, structures, and space sciences. He recently developed a high-performance 3-D display system to visualize the flights of the X-43A Hyper-X aircraft in real-time as the data streamed into the NASA control rooms from vehicles flying at record-breaking speeds up to Mach 10. He has also provided critical support to numerous other NASA Programs including Mars Airplane, Digital Earth, the Intelligent Synthesis Environment, the LIDAR In-Space Technology Experiment, and the Advanced Subsonic Transport. He received a Bachelor s Degree from the University of Louisville and a Master s from the College of William and Mary, both in Computer Science.

Ross Shafer is a six-time Emmy Award Winning Comedian and Writer. He has hosted several Network Talk & Game shows; including The Late Show on FOX, Days End on ABC, The Match Game on ABC and Almost Live for Comedy Central. And, get this, Ross was the guy who invented Bill Nye, the Science Guy. Ross is also very active in the corporate marketplace in that he has written and produced (14) funny Human Resource Training Films on Customer Service, Sales, and Motivation. But, he is most proud of his best selling cookbook… "Cook Like a Stud" - 38 recipes men can prepare in the garage…using their own tools!

Herbert Van de Sompel graduated in Mathematics and Computer Science at Ghent University, and in 2000, obtained a Ph.D. there. For many years, he was Head of Library Automation at Ghent University. After having left Ghent in 2000, he has been Visiting Professor in Computer Science at Cornell University, and Director of e-Strategy and Programmes at the British Library. Currently, he is the team leader of the Digital Library Research and Prototyping Team at the Research Library of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Herbert has played a major role in creating the Open Archives Protocol for Metadata Harvesting, the OpenURL Framework for Context-Sensitive Services, and the SFX linking server.

Johann van Reenen is an Associate Professor at the University of New Mexico (UNM). He is the Assistant Dean for Public and Research Services for the University of New Mexico library system and director of the Centennial Science and Engineering Library. He has been involved with science and technology information consortia through his frequent chairmanship of the "Alliance for Innovation in Science & Technology Information" and as Director of the Digital Library Linkages Program of the "Ibero-American Science & Technology Education Consortium". Before coming to New Mexico, he was head of the four Life Sciences libraries at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Johann is a Distinguished Member of the "Academy of Health Information Professionals" and holds postgraduate degrees in Science and in Library & Information Sciences. He has published more than 40 articles, 3 chapters in books, and he is the editor of a book on "Digital Libraries and Virtual Work Places" for the Organization of American States. He regularly speaks at international conferences on his current interests. These include opportunities to support the re-invention of scholarly publishing processes and the development of electronic information products and services for local clients and for Latin American science libraries. Since the mid-1990's he has taught workshops on "Risk taking and decision making in the electronic environment" and leadership courses for librarians.