Grid people

 
Barbera, Roberto

Roberto Barbera

Name: Roberto Barbera

Age: 44

Project: EELA-2, EGEE-III, EUAsiaGrid, EU-IndiaGRID

Position: Professor

Institution: University of Catania and INFN

Nationality: Italian

Favourite IT technology: the World Wide Web and the Grid

   
1. What's your role within grid computing?
  I have coordination roles in several grid projects, both at national and international level. My principal interests are education and training on Grid technology for the benefit of e-Science.
 
2. Why did you get in to grid?
    a. From the strictly scientific point of view: because, working in the ALICE Experiment at CERN, I needed to have a computing capable to let me analyze the huge amount of data coming from the detector;
b. From a more general point of view: because grid technology can improve the scientific collaboration of Research Institutions and the competitiveness of Small-Medium Enterprises of my Region (Sicily).
 
3. What did you study at university?
  Nuclear and Particle Physics.
 
4. What did you want to be at school?
  a. The driver of caterpillar tractors (when I was 5),
b. Either an astronomer or a physicist (since I was 13).
 
5. What are the highlights of your job?
  a. The possibility to use a new emerging technology, such as Grid Computing, to enable cooperation and collaboration among people of different parts of the world belonging to very diverse cultures and traditions;
b. The possibility to actually contribute to the education of a new generation of scientists.
 
6. What are the lowlights of your job?
  Sometimes, the impact it has on my private life.
 
7. What do you do when you're not at work?
 
I like to travel worldwide and listen to classical music.
 
8. What are your goals for the next year?
  Always the same: do better than what I will have done this year.
 
9. Would you encourage your children to get in to grid and IT?
  I don’t know but I would certainly encourage them to get into anything they feel it can change the world.
 
10. What do you want to be when you grow up?
  A person who can look back to his life and be satisfied of what he did.
 
 
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