Published 26 October 2005
Published 26 October 2005
The Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA) will be awarding honorary doctorates to Carl Kesselman – co-inventor of grid technology, one of the leading breakthroughs in computer science since the development of the World Wide Web – and art historian Joop Joosten. Joosten established his reputation in particular with a voluminous catalogue on the oeuvre of Piet Mondriaan. The honorary doctorates will be awarded during the celebration of the university foundation year (Dies Natalis) on 9 January 2006.
Carl Kesselman, PhD (b.1960) is one of the inventors, together with Ian Foster, of ‘the Grid’, which caused an extraordinary breakthrough in the complete infrastructure of information technology. Grid technology enables the construction of computer networks, which can function as virtual super-computers with great arithmetic capacities. In a grid, computers or clusters of computers are integrated into a completely new concept of data processing, which leads to more transparent access to all kinds of new data and services, and to special peripheral equipment such as particle accelerators and medical scanners. This development is about as important as the development of the World Wide Web: the invention has resulted in a mass of new research and has given worldwide integration of data, experiments and researchers an enormous boost.
Kesselman’s work has also brought about a new approach called ‘service computing’, making ICT-sources available independent of location and time. This has been the prelude to large multidisciplinary research programmes now known as ‘e-science’. Kesselman is attached to the University of Southern California, among other things as director of the Center for Grid Technology Information Sciences Institute. Without doubt, he will enter history as one of the most important designers of the way in which data is gathered and processed both in academic experiments and in daily life.
Peter Sloot, professor of Computational Science, will act as honorary promoter.
Joop Joosten (b.1926), chief curator of academic documentation at the Stedijk Museum in Amsterdam until his retirement in 1991, holds a central position in the historical recognition of Dutch modernism of the first half of the twentieth century. As co-organizer, port-of-call for questions and author Joosten was involved with many exhibition projects, both nationally and internationally; all Stijl exhibitions and Mondriaan exhibitions of the past decades have profited from his extensive knowledge. Besides, he has written articles. His magnum opus, a catalogue on the oeuvre of Mondriaan written in cooperation with Robert Welsh, was published in 1998. Joosten worked on part two of this catalogue, covering the period of 1911 to 1944, for more than 25 years (Welsh was responsible for the first part). In this catalogue Joosten shows a strong preference for documentation, and restraint in interpretation. The catalogue presents a wealth of information about the artist, his artistic relations and the historical context. The importance of his work from an art-historical point of view, and its meaning for the accessibility of Dutch heritage are beyond questioning.
Manfred Bock, professor of History of Architecture, will act as honorary promoter.
Source: UvA Press Office
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