Keynotes

The SICSA PhD conference 2010 organisers are pleased to announce the engaging personalities and academics attending to speak at this year's PhD conference at the University of Edinburgh, June 9-11. The stellar lineup includes:

Jorge Cham of PhD comic strip 'Piled Higher and Deeper' in a triumphant return to Edinburgh following a talk several years ago that literally had people queuing down the aisles to hear his presentation on the 'Power of Procrastination'. Jorge is a published author and has delivered motivation talks at over 80 major universities. Check out his comics at www.phdcomics.com.

Prof Dave Cliff, University of Bristol: an excellent speaker who has featured frequently on television and radio. Dave has held academic posts in the UK, been an Associate Professor at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab, worked in industry with Hewlett-Packard research labs, and founded his own company. In October 2005, he was appointed Director of a £14m five-year UK research consortium and has a firm grasp on technologies of the future.

Prof Alex Wolf, Imperial College London: a leading figure in academia and industry as a Fellow of the ACM and BCS who worked first at AT&T Bell Laboratories, and then up through the ranks of academia. Alex is an expert in complex IT systems, architectures and distributed systems, a participant in the ACM Distinguished Speakers Program (DSP), Chair of the ACM Special Interest Group (SIG) Governing Board, and a member of the Executive Committee (EC) of the ACM Council.

Ian Ritchie, Chairman of iomart plc., and four other companies, plus a non-executive Director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival and a member of SICSA's International Advisory Board. Ian is an authoritative, insightful and inspirational speaker on technology transfer, for whom a short CV might read, "Smart, funny, successful, generous and technologically very, very switched on".

Jim Mather, Scottish Minister for Enterprise, Energy, and Tourism and Director of Business for Scotland. Born and bred in Scotland, Jim worked in the computer industry and latterly ran his own business before entering politics.