The entire ESnet team was saddened to learn about the unexpected passing of Jim Archuleta of Ciena. We’ve lost a good colleague and a true friend and extend our deepest sympathy to Jim’s family and co-workers.

Operating a successful network like ESnet makes us reliant on our vendors like Ciena and it’s important that we establish good working relationships with them – it’s the way we do business. But it was different with Jim. Jim was not just a vendor rep but a true partner and collaborator. Through our work together with Jim, we’ve been able to transform the network resources available to scientists around the world.

Jim knew his stuff, he knew what we needed and he knew how to work with our unique community. He even stepped up as a running partner on occasion.  Our community has lost a valued contributor and we will truly miss him.

Here is Jim’s obituary from the Dallas Morning News on Jan. 21, 2016.

The Department of Energy’s Energy Sciences Network, or ESnet, and the Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California (CENIC) have announced a partnership in developing cybersecurity strategy and research.

Sean Peisert of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s Computational Research Division will be director of the new CENIC/ESnet Joint Cybersecurity Initiative. Peisert, who was also recently named as the chief cybersecurity strategist for CENIC, is a noted security expert who has worked extensively in computer security research and development.

Although the defense of information systems and networks is critical for all modern enterprises, scientific research organizations like ESnet and CENIC face particular challenges: support of open science and, increasingly, big-data science; diverse research portfolios; openness to experimentation across intellectual domains; openness to collaborations within and across institutions – regionally, nationally and internationally; and the need for seamless access to remote data sources, scientific tools and computing resources.

Read the full story.

Kate Petersen Mace, who most recently served as director of External Partnership Management at Clemson University, is the newest member of ESnet’s Science Engagement Team.

In addition to her work at Clemson, Mace also served as chair of SCinet at the SC14 conference. The position was a two-year volunteer commitment to manage a diverse team of more than 100 network engineers from around the world to design and deploy a network to make the conference the best-connected site on Earth – for a week, until it’s all taken down.

“One of the most important qualifications Kate brings to the position is the breadth of her experience,” said Lauren Rotman, leader of the Science Engagement Team. “She has earned the respect of the technical community through her frontline experience in engineering and administering networks, including network architecture design and deployment. Kate has also proven herself to be an effective collaborator, forming partnerships and serving as an advocate for new technology in the community.”

Read the full story.