معرفی
Henri Bal is a Full Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam's Faculty of Sciences, leading a research group of over 20 members in High Performance Distributed Computing since 2005. His career at the university spans from Research Assistant (1982) to current Professor, with prior appointments including Associate Professor (1994) and split Full Professor roles across Computer Science and Physics (1998).
Education:
- PhD in Computer Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (1989)
- MSc in Mathematics, Delft University of Technology (1982)
Professor Bal's research integrates fundamental distributed systems with real-world applications, specializing in programming environments for clusters, grids, clouds, and mobile systems. His work spans semantic web reasoning, distributed model checking, and scientific applications in astronomy (LOFAR), high-energy physics (NIKHEF), and climate modeling (Utrecht University), evidenced by systems like Orca, MagPIe, Manta, and Ibis/JavaGAT.
Scientific Awards:
- NWO PIONIER award (1993-1997), comparable to an ERC starting grant
- Work on Awari recognized in 'The Math Book' as a historic mathematics achievement
- Multiple first prizes in IEEE International Scalable Computing Challenges (2008, 2010)
- Two EuroSys Roger Needham PhD awards for his students (2010, 2013)
He established foundational Dutch research infrastructure through the NWO DAS project, creating distributed testbeds used by ~100 PhD candidates. As adjunct director of the €40M Virtual Lab for e-Science (2004-2009), he catalyzed the Netherlands eScience Center's formation and participated in EU projects (Gridlab, XtreemOS, Contrail). Currently, he chairs the Department of Computer Science Science committee and explores GPU and smartphone-based distributed systems.
His research group actively collaborates with NIKHEF, LOFAR, and Utrecht University on domain-specific applications while advancing hybrid distributed computing frameworks.
