Microsoft Research Asia delegation visited the Biodiversity Committee, CAS

On March 18, a Microsoft Research Asia delegation visited Biodiversity Committee and Institute of Botany, CAS. Professor Keping Ma, the deputy director of Biodiversity Committee (BC-CAS) hosted the meeting. Also attended were some staff from International Office, Center for Documentation and Information Management, Institute of Botany.

The call for proposals on program “Windows Azure for Research Award program” jointly organized by the Computer Network Information Center (CNIC) of CAS and Microsoft Research Asia attracted 36 proposals.Nine were selected for pilot funding. The project entitled“Dynamic Biodiversity Protect and Monitor in a Cloud Environment “by Dr. Zheping Xu fromthe Institute of Botany was selected. Dr. Zheping Xu, reported the progress on the National Specimen Information Infrastructure (NSII), Asia Biodiversity Conservation, and Database Network (ABCDNet).

Daniel Fay is the director of Earth, Energy, and Environment for Microsoft Research Connections, where he works with academic research projects focused on utilizing computing technologies to aid in scientific and engineering research. This includes his teams’ projects in Astronomy and Earth Visualization using the Microsoft Research technologies, World Wide Telescope and Layerscape.org. Fay has project experience working with high-performance computing, grid computing, collaboration, and visualization tools in scientific research. He was previously the manager of the e-Science Program at Microsoft Research, where he started Microsoft’s engagements in e-Science-including the Microsoft Research e-Science Workshop.