"In particular, the symposium addressed recent changes brought on by information technology," says CRPC researcher Paul Messina, director of CACR. Adds CACR Executive Director and CRPC Facilities Director James C.T. Pool, "The requirements of computational science have traditionally driven many aspects, both hardware and software, of information technology. With the advent of systems developed from commodity hardware and software components and the increasing role of networks and visualization, computational science now depends increasingly on trends simulated by other areas of information technology."

National Science Foundation (NSF) Director Rita Colwell was the keynote speaker, presenting "Information Technologies and the New Sociology of Science." CRPC Director Ken Kennedy gave a talk on "Software and High-Performance Computing: Challenges for Research." Other speakers included Andy van Dam, professor of computer science at Brown University; Gil Weigand, deputy assistant secretary for research development and simulation, Defense Programs, U.S. Department of Energy; Tom Defanti, director, Electronic Visualization Laboratory and professor of electrical engineering and computer science, University of Illinois at Chicago; Sid Karin, director, National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure and professor of computer science and engineering, UC San Diego; Paul Dimotakis, John K. Northrop Professor of Aeronautics and professor of applied physics at Caltech; Mark Ellisman, director of the Center for Research on Biological Structure and the National Center for Microscopy and Imaging Research at UC San Diego; Greg McRae, Bayer Professor of computational engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Paul Woodward, director of the Laboratory for Computational Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota.

For presentation abstracts and other information, see www.cacr.caltech.edu/it2kcs/.