Geneva office

12, Avenue des Morgines
1213 Petit-Lancy (Geneva)
Switzerland

Email: Fabrizio.Gagliardi@microsoft.com
Phone: +41 78 844 6476
Assistant: +41 78 844 6552 (Luisa Küppers)

Short Bio

Fabrizio Gagliardi graduated in 1974 at the University of Pisa with a Doctoral thesis on distributed computing applied to particle physics experiments. In the same year he joined CERN where he worked for many years designing real-time data acquisition systems for several CERN experiments. During this time he had the privilege to work with Nobel Prize winners Carlo Rubbia, Georges Charpak, Samuel Ting and Jack Steinberger.

After a period in the US at the Stanford Linear Accelerator centre (SLAC), where he contributed to the design of the control system for the being built, at that time, linear collider particle accelerator, he came back to CERN in the early 80’ and pioneered AI and knowledge based systems in his role as head of the CERN Expert Systems group.

He then took responsibility for a series of joint projects with industry, mainly with Digital Equipment Corporation, where he pioneered computing farms which predated and anticipated what is today Grid computing.

In the early 90’s he became responsible for the data management services of the CERN central computer centre. In this position he conceived and directed a plan to fully automate the storage operations of the centre and deploy a sophisticated Hierarchical Storage Management system. This system, still in operation today, allowed remote data recording from the experiments directly onto secondary and tertiary storage at the CERN computer centre.

In the mid 90’ he promoted the move towards parallel computing and led a major EU funded project, GPMIMD2, which designed one of the most advanced supercomputers of that time. The system interconnect of that system (Elan/Elite) is still today one of the most performing systems in the market and used in several of the TOP500 supercomputers.

This supercomputer system was used for the data collection and on-line monitoring of one of the most demanding experiments at CERN (NA48) allowing for the first time complex analysis programs, normally reserved for off-line use, to run in real-time.

At the end of the 90’ his interests moved towards Grid computing and he started early collaboration with Ian Foster and Carl Kesselman in the US, which led to projects like EU-DataGrid and EGEE, of which is was Principal Investigator and Director from 2000 till 2005.

He was one of the co-founders of the Global Grid Forum (GGF) in 2001-now Open Grid Forum (OGF). He is a member of the OGF Advisory Committee.

In 2004-2005 while still Director of EGEE he contributed to the incubation and launch of more than 10 other Grid EU projects all inspired and supported by the EU EGEE flag-ship project.

He also contributed as expert in several EU committees and task forces to the design and shaping of the present EU FP7 programme.

In November 2005, after a last EGEE conference in his home town of Pisa, Fabrizio Gagliardi joined Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, USA, to take responsibility for the company Technical Computing Initiative in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America.

Fabrizio Gagliardi has authored and co-authored many publications in HPC applied to science. He is an expert in computing at the Commission of the EU and member of several scientific advisory committees, conference and journal editorial boards. He has presented his work at many scientific conferences around the world.

Some more detailed information on his life before joining Microsoft can be found in a article published on IEEE Spectrum magazine of July 2006 “Old world, new Grid” which describes well his latest accomplishments before joining Microsoft.

Fabrizio Gagliardi is married with two daughters and when he is not busy traveling around the world, he coaches his daughters in horse jumping competition

Publications (selection)

• Addressing the challenges in changing IT landscapes. In eStrategies ¦ Projects, British Publishers; Bristol, UK; February 2009.
• HPC Opportunities and Challenges in e-Science. Eds.: Marian Bubak, Geert Dick van Albada, Kack Dongarra, Peter M.A. Sloot. Computational Science - ICCS 2008, Proceedings, Part I, Springer Berlin/ Heidelberg, June 2008, ISBN 978-3-540-69383-3.
• Towards Cloud Computing: Opportunities and challenges for e-Science. Eds.: Fernando Silva, Gaspar Barreira, Lígia Riberio. 2nd IBERGRID Grid Infrastructure Conference Proceedings, Netbiblo, 2008, ISBN: 978-84-9745-288-5.
• "E-Infrastructures: What's next?". Article based on an interview done by Maddalena Vario (GARR), EUMED e-Infrastructure booklet, 2008.
• Transactional Memory: An Overview. Co-authors: Tim Harris, Adrián Cristal, Osman S. Unsal, Eduard Ayguade, Burton Smith, Mateo Valero. IEEE Computer Society Press, Volume 27, Issue 3 (May 2007).
• Building an Infrastructure for scientific Grid Computing: status and goals of the EGEE project. Co-authors: Bob Jones, Francois Grey, Marc-Elian Bégin, Matti Heikkurinen/ CERN. Philosophical Transactions: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, Volume 363, Number 1833/ August 15, 2005, pages 1729-1742.
• The EGEE European Infrastructure Project. Lecture notes in Computer Science, Volume 3402/2005.
• EGEE - Providing a production quality Grid for e-Science. Co-author: Marc-Elian Bégin/ CERN. Paper presented at Local to Global Data Interoperability - Challenges and Technologies Conference, Sardinia, Italy, June 20-24, 2005.
• Il Centro di supercalcolo virtuale. Lo sforzo europeo nel terzo millennio. Invited article in MediaDuemila, anno XXII, June 5, 2004.
• Introduction to Grid Infrastructures. Invited article to EUDG INFSO, Research Infrastructures "Changing the way research is done". EU Publication Office, December 2003. ISBN 92-894-6592-1.
• EGEE - First Results and Future Plans. On behalf of the EGEE Collaboration. Paper presented at the Grid Workshop in Cracow, 2004.
• The European Grid Infrastructure EGEE project. Astronomical Data Analysis Software and systems XIII, ASP Conference Series, Vol. 31, 2004.
• Experience with Grid infrastructures in Europe and outlook for the future. Paper presented at IV Krajowa Konferencja, 2003.
• EU DataGrid Progress and Plans for EGEE. Paper presented at the 2nd Krakow Grid Workshop, December 11-14, 2002. Paper published by Academic Computer Centre CYFRONET UMM.
• Grid Developments for High Energy Physics and the Information Society. Paper presented at the WSIS Ministerial Conference, Bucharest, November 6-9, 2002.
• Grids and e-Science: Going beyond today's internet. Co-author: Francois Grey/ CERN-MIC-Technical University of Denmark. Article published in the Public Service Review: European Union, autumn 2002.
• European DataGrid Project: Experience of Deploying a Large Scale Testbed for e-Science Applications. Co-authors: Bon Jones/ CERN-EU DataGrid, Mario Reale/ INFN-CNAF, Stephen Burke/ RAL-UK. Paper published in the Performance 2002 Tutorial Lectures Book "Performance Evaluations of Complex systems: Techniques and Tools" by Maria Carla Calzarossa, Salvatore Tucci (Eds.).
• Grid and Research Networks as Drivers and Enablers of Future Internet Architectures. Co-authors: Kyriakos Baxevanidis/ INFSO-CEC-EU, Ian Foster/ University of Chicago, Howard Davies/ DANTE. The New Internet Architecture, Special issue of Computer Networks, Elsevier Science BV, September 202.
• The EU DataGrid project: status and perspective. Paper presented at the international workshop "The Potential of Grid and Distributed Computing Activities in Romania", Bucharest, April 20-21, 2002.
• The EU DataGrid Project and other grid projects in Europe. Invited paper at the International Symposium on Computational Science and Engineering 2002 (ISCSE'02), Tokyo, March 5-6, 2002.
• E Tim creò il WEB 1990 ora tocca al GRID 2006. MediaDuemila, Anno XIX, November 8, 2001.
• Large systems and specific solutions: Summary session at CHEP97. Co-authors: Akira Ukawa/ University of Tsukuba, Peter Wagner/ SESY-IfH Zeuthen. Computer Physics Communications (issue 110, 76-79), Elsevier Science BV, 1998.
• General Purpose Parallel Computing in a High-Energy Physics Experiment at CERN. Co-authors: J. Apostolakis et al. HPCN'96, High Performance Computing and Networking Conference, Brussels, Belgium, April 1996 (Springer Verlag, Berlin).
• Remote Data-Recording and Processing for NA48. CHEP '95, Computing in High Energy Physics Conference, Rio de Janeiro, 1995 (World Sc. Singapore).
• Feasibility studies for a High Energy Physics MC program on Massive Parallel Platforms. Co-authors: L. M. Bertolotto et al. CHEP'94, Computing in High Energy Physics Conference, San Francisco, 1994, Ed.: S.C. Loken.
• First results from the parallelisation of CERN's NA48 Simulation Program. Co-authors: J. Apostolakis et al. HPCN'94, High Performance Computing and Networking Conference, Munich, 1004, V.1, Eds.: W. Gentzsch and U. Harms.
• Applying Knowledge Based System Technology to the control of HEP Experiments. Co-author: G. Mornacchi. DECUS Switzerland AI SIG Bulletin, 1987.
• Object Oriented Description of the L3 single Photon Trigger System. Co-authors: W. Fabbri et al. DECUS Switzerland AI SIG Bulletin, 1987.
• Report on Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems activity at CERN. DECUS Switzerland AI SIG Bulletin, 1987.
• A Data Acquisition System for the VAX computers. Co-authors: M. Sciré, A. Vascotto, V. White. Real-Time Data Handling and Process Control, E.G. Kingham, G. Le Lann and N.E, Malagardis (Eds.), Elsevier Science Publishers B. V. (North-Holland, 1984).
• A Transportable RSX11M System. Co-author: D.R. Botterill. Proceedings of the 1980 DECUS Symposium, September 1980.
• Proposal for a control system for the ALA accelerator. Co-authors: E. Chesi et al. INFN Laboratori Nazionali Frascati. LNF-79-7. November 1979.
• Trends in On-Line data processing. ECFA/LEP Working Group, March 1979.
• A system of Multigap Proportional Wire Chambers. Co-authors: W. Bell et al. Nuclear Instruments and methods 156 (1978).
• The Data Distribution System for Multi-Experiment Operation of the SFM Facility. Co-authors: W. Bell et al. Proceedings of the First Conference on On-Line Computers in Laboratory use. Imperial College, London, September 1975.