TNC25: Brighton, UK | 9-13 June 2025
TNC25: Brighton, UK | 9-13 June 2025
SPEAKERS
Giuseppe Aceto is Associate Professor at the University of Napoli Federico II. He has a PhD in telecommunication engineering from the same University, where he teaches Bachelor and Master courses in computer engineering, about computer programming and decentralized applications. His work falls in monitoring network performance and security. His recent research focuses on advanced Deep Learning architectures for traffic classification and prediction, on which he has co-authored highly-cited papers in top-notch international journals. He is the recipient of several awards including the 2018 Best Journal Paper Award by IEEE CSIM, and the Computer Networks 2020 Best Paper Award.
Rich Adam is a network engineer at GEANT with a long history of service provider routing both within large international ISPs and specialist MPLS organisations. Rich's primary focus is building networks and services and is currently leveraging this experience in the Network Engineering team, migrating the GEANT IP core to the new Nokia platform.
Ainamaani Isaac (born 17th July 2002) is a Ugandan software engineer currently working with the Research and Education Network for Uganda (RENU). He holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Makerere University.
I am working as a researcher specializing in digital identity and trust within the European research and education landscape. I am affiliated with the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) in Germany, Munich and actively contribute to the GÉANT GN5-2 project, particularly within Work Package 5 (Trust and Identity), focusing on digital wallets and identity solutions for academic and research communities. I am following the progress of the wallet ecosystem and finding solutions for many open problems and challenges. It includes many aspects like architectural, technical, protocol and standards, and etc. In GN5-1, I also focused on the wallet fundamentals, it’s role in E&R and risks that may threaten the Distributed Digital Identity.
Abdalla is a Computer Networks student at Anglia Ruskin University, and is currently undertaking an internship as a Network Engineer in the GÉANT Operations Centre. His main interests lie in routing security, with the topic of his lightning talk at TNC25 having a particular focus on how BGP security measures affect connectivity and resilience within National Research and Education Networks.
With a strong appetite for learning, he is continually expanding his technical expertise and is eager to contribute to the advancement of reliable network systems withing the community.
Ana Alves is the Chief Information Security Officer at GÉANT, where she leads the organization’s cybersecurity strategy and coordinates the horizontal security team. As Task Lead of T1 Compliance in Work Package 8 and Security Coordinator within the GÉANT project, Ana plays a role in ensuring security across initiatives within the research and education networking community, promoting collaboration and resilience among NRENs.
Chris Atherton is a Research Engagement Officer at GÉANT, focusing on providing cutting-edge pan-European networking, and trust and identity services. His role focuses on supporting International user communities and organisations, as well as identifying new solutions to specific research requirements primarily in the Earth Observation, Astronomy and Planetary Science communities. Chris has over 10 years’ experience working in the IT and Space industry prior to joining GÉANT and holds a BSc (Hons) in Computer Networks and Security.
Jess Auerbach Jahajeeah is an interdisciplinary social scientist and Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town. She has worked across Africa and the Americas, exploring digital inequality, knowledge systems and inclusive innovation. Jess has published widely in both the popular and scientific press and has won several awards for her research and teaching. She holds a PhD from Stanford University and an MSc from Oxford University.
Pål Axelsson is currently leading the Swedish Academic Identity Federation SWAMID that he has been part of since it was created 15 years ago. In his work with SWAMID Pål specializes in identity federation policies and contributes to this area within REFEDS. Pål has since the mid-nineties worked at Uppsala University with AAI architecture until he left for a full-time work with SWAMID at the Swedish NREN SUNET in 2016.
Berk Balci is an IAM Engineer at CERN and the service manager of the WLCG (Worldwide LHC Computing Grid) IAM Service, which governs authentication and authorization across the WLCG infrastructure. He is actively involved in CERN's Certificate Authority Service. He is also a contributor to AARC TREE, a European project focused on advancing trust and identity in research collaborations. He supports the onboarding of CERN services into the European Open Science Cloud AAI ecosystem.
Jon is Senior Director of Solutions Marketing at Nokia with a focus on optical networking technology and solutions. He is a frequent speaker at industry events and has authored numerous articles.
Jon has spent over 30 years working in the telecoms industry and joined Nokia through the acquisition of Infinera in 2025. Prior to Infinera Jon worked for Lucent Technologies, Sycamore Networks and Transmode in a variety of engineering, sales and marketing roles. Jon is a Chartered Engineer and holds a Bachelor of Engineering Degree in Electrical Engineering and Electronics from the University of Manchester (UMIST).
Nikos is a researcher specializing in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, with a focus on applying machine learning to network security challenges. His recent work investigates domain generation algorithm (DGA) detection using multilayer perceptrons (MLPs) enhanced with attention mechanisms to improve detection accuracy and model explainability. He also employs SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations) to interpret model behavior and support transparent threat analysis.
He has contributed to research initiatives at the Institute of Communication and Computer Systems (ICCS). His academic interests include explainable AI, threat detection, and the integration of deep learning techniques in cybersecurity contexts.
Rene Belso has worked in international research strategy, policy, and infrastructure since 1999, building on degrees in Political Science and Computer Science. After 8 years at the Danish research ministry and the Nordic Council of Ministers, he led national High-Performance Computing (HPC), and its integration into the Danish e-infrastructure Consortium (DeiC). With focus on international collaborations in data and computing infrastructure, Rene has served as independent expert for the European Commission, the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, and the Czech Ministry of Education. He has contributed to numerous research infrastructure projects, including SUBMERSE which explores Fibre Optic Sensing.
Nico-Paul is a systems developer at Sikt, the Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research. He works as part of the core team that develops and maintains Feide, the Norwegian solution for federated login and access in the education sector. He has a degree in Computer and Electronic Engineering and is originally from South Africa. He has been working as a software engineer since 2020, with recent focus on implementing passkeys for the Feide sytem.
Peter has been involved with all things automation and orchestration at the networking department of SURF since starting as Trainee in 2016. Since the start of the Workflow Orchestrator Programme in 2021 he has been the Tech Lead and responsible for the development of the technology that now orchestrates provisioning of numerous NREN's in the world. These days he is working on the telemetry platform that will help evolve the SURF network towards an Intelligent network.
Franziska Böhler is the Head of Legal at FeedbackFruits. She has played a pivotal role in building scalable, ethics-first business operations that balance trustworthy practices and legal compliance with cutting-edge pedagogical tools. With a passion for bridging the gap between legal frameworks and emerging technologies, and a strong background in European and international law, including an advanced specialization in Law and Digital Technologies from Leiden University, Franziska has a deep understanding of the complex regulatory environment surrounding digital innovations. She has a particular interest in the latent ambiguities in law caused by the rapid development of new technologies and how legislation - like the EU AI Act - can be implemented to protect fundamental rights without stifling innovation.
Ruth Britton is a Computer Systems Engineer at EUMETSAT, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites. She is responsible for the maintenance and upgrades of EUMETSAT’s near-real-time data dissemination system, which delivers vital satellite data for weather forecasting and environmental monitoring. With nearly six years of experience at EUMETSAT, she works closely with meteorological and space agencies across Europe and beyond to support the efficient delivery of EUMETSAT data via terrestrial networks. This dissemination system plays a critical role in enabling timely, reliable access to satellite observations that underpin early warnings for severe weather and support climate monitoring initiatives.
Sebastiano Buscaglione, is a professional, with many years of experience supporting large scale data networks. Before joining DANTE, now GÉANT, in 2012 where he is currently employed as Senior Network Architect he worked as part of the At&t global operations department. Currently, Sebastiano leads the GN4-3N task looking at the definition of the future topology of the GÉANT Network.
Enzo is the Head of the Research Engagement and Support Team in GÉANT, in charge of providing user support for pan-European and international scientific groups and collaborations, and of the Science and Research engagement activities. With a background in computer science and networking, his previous positions were network architect and manager with the Department of Physics of the University of Naples, in charge of the computing for physics experiments, and Technical Associate to the ATLAS experiment collaboration at CERN and to the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN).
Jean Carlo Faustino is service manager at RNP, where has worked for over twenty years, currently managing Trust & Identity services. Jean holds a degree and master at Unicamp, doctorate at Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) and, between 2015 and 2016, was visiting researcher at King's College London.
Dr. Barb Carra was appointed President and CEO of Cybera, Alberta’s Research and Education Network in 2019. She is a respected leader and collaborative partner within Canada’s National Research and Education Network (NREN) landscape. Barb is a champion for the digital needs of Canadians, and frequently meets with all levels of government to ensure that Albertans have access to a connected, secure, and equitable digital future. Provincially, Barb works to strengthen how Alberta’s public sector organizations collaborate with each other through trusted partnerships to collectively increase impact, relevancy, and value. Barb currently sits on the Boards for The Calgary Zoo and Wilder Institute, CANARIE, and in 2022 received a Governor in Council appointment to The Canada Revenue Agency Board of Management. Barb earned her Master's of Science at the University of Calgary and her Doctorate from Wilfrid Laurier University.
Barbara Carroll is PR & Marketing Manager at HEAnet, Ireland’s National Education and Research Network, where she leads strategic communications and stakeholder engagement across the Irish education and research sector. Originally from Poland and now based in Ireland, Barbara holds an MBA from the National College of Ireland and brings a strategic, analytical mindset to marketing leadership. Before joining HEAnet, she built her career across diverse sectors, including e-commerce, manufacturing, and construction, proving just how adaptable and transferable strong marketing skills can be. Alongside her “day job” at HEAnet, she also chairs the Steering Committee of the Special Interest Group for Marketing Communications (SIG-Marcomms), championing collaboration and innovation among communications professionals across research and education networks around the world.
Dr Tim Chown is the Network Development Manager for Jisc, who operate Janet, the UK's research and education network. He has been active in the R&E networking community for over 25 years, having been involved in the formation of eduroam within the TERENA TF-MOBILITY WG and early European IPv6 deployment projects such as 6NET. More recently he has participated in the large-scale data challenges run by the CERN experiment community and the associated research networking performance tests.
Tim's interests include network performance and monitoring, IPv6, network security, and network automation. He is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Southampton and an active contributor to the IETF, where he co-chairs the happy WG that seeks to improve browser connectivity behaviour and serves on the Internet and Operations Area Directorates.
Debora Reis holds a PhD in Electrical Engineering from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She has been working at RNP since 2022, currently as e-Science Manager. Her job is to interact with scientists and research institutions to understand their demands of transferring scientific data and using high-performance computing resources remotely in order to help them use RNP's cyberinfrastructure with greater efficiency.
Paola Crobu is Product Manager at Sparkle for Multicloud Solutions, Cloud Connectivity, and Ethernet-based network services. She began her career in the telecommunications industry in 2005, after earning a degree in Electronic Engineering and a Master in Networking for Enterprise and Carrier.
For over a decade, she served as a pre-sales and bid manager, specializing in the design of tailor-made connectivity solutions for Enterprise customers.
In 2015, she embraced cloud technologies, managing major frameworks aimed at enabling Public Sector institutions — including government bodies and the Research & Education community — to easily access cloud services and to accelerate their digital transformation, allowing them to focus more on their core missions such as advancing knowledge and fostering innovation.
Drawing on her combined experience in telecom and cloud, she actively pursues the integration of network and cloud services, to provide Customers with complemented solutions and to support the cloudification of connectivity offering, driving the transition toward an effective Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) paradigm.
A hopeful optimist, she has a strong interest in technological innovation that meaningfully improves citizens’ lives and bring the human condition to an authentic progress.
With over 20 years of experience in IT architecture, digital transformation, and organisational design, I have dedicated my career to bridging the gap between technology, business strategy, and team effectiveness. My journey began as a software engineer, evolving into roles in enterprise architecture and technology leadership, where I have helped organisations navigate complex digital transformations, cloud adoption, and IT governance. Having worked across finance, retail, SaaS, and consulting, I have led cross-functional teams, restructured IT landscapes, and improved collaboration models to accelerate value delivery.
I'm Mike, a lively student at HoGent (Belgium). After my graduate in programming, I wanted to extend my knowledge, currently finishing my applied informatics degree. I enjoy assembling pieces of code in order to create new functional implementations, test them or debug problems. My bachelor thesis about the AI jump rope judge allowed me to combine both of my passions, programming and jump rope. This also strengthened my passion in the field of computer vision.
Lætitia A Delvaux holds an M.Sc.Eng. degree in Computer Science from the University of Liège, Belgium (1999). She is working for PSNC, the Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center, and is perfSONAR Service Manager in the GÉANT project. She has participated in different network and services monitoring activities, both on the operational and the software development sides, for many years and various (N)REN (Belnet, Dante, PSNC, WACREN, International Networks @ Indiana University). She is involved in the perfSONAR project since 2008.
Scotty has spent his career in the UK charity and education sectors in a variety of roles, largely looking at operational and efficiency improvements, project managing, and leveraging data and data visualisation to drive strategic change. He is currently a product manager at Jisc for a key platform that disseminates sector data to higher education providers in the UK. He has also held a number of positions on staff LGBTQ+ networks and is currently co-chair of Jisc's network.
Casper works as a Trust and Security Service Specialist at GÉANT, focusing Trust and Security services, such as eduroam, eduGAIN and TRANSITS.
He is also the task leader Enabling Communities in the GN5-2 project.
I joined the UK Joint Network Team in 1986 when NREN backbone speeds were typically 64 Kbps, up to a maximum of 2Mbps. Since then, I have held senior positions at JANET, TERENA and GÉANT. I authored “The Case for NRENs” and was responsible for leading the GN3 ASPIRE foresight study. In 2014 I became a trustee on the board of the Vietsch Foundation.
I passionately believe the development of the Internet continues to be accelerated by the strength and collaborative nature of the education and research networking community and that the Internet is a public good for the good of the public.
Mike Erickson is associate vice president for Community Engagement at Internet2, a role he has held since January, 2020. In this capacity he has responsibility for community relationships, membership, and engagement opportunities and programming across the US research and education community.
Prior to working at Internet 2, Mike served as Chief Information Officer at two US universities, most recently at Colorado School of Mines. He is a champion for celebrating and leveraging the diversity that we enjoy throughout the R&E community.
I am the chief network architect at Jisc, working on Janet, the UK's National Research and Education network.
After finishing a degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Imperial College, London, far too long ago, I stuck around working at the computer centre there back in the days when we provided connectivity for src.doc.ic.ac.uk. I moved from systems admin (looking after the 12,000 lines of custom-written C that handled Imperial's user database) to networks, when implementing a 3Com ATM network drove me to ULCC and the Janet and TEN-155 networks. I'm now employed by Jisc, but that's where I still am today, responsible for the overall design of the Janet network. I'm still heavily involved in our external connectivity, whether peering and transit or working with GEANT and the wider international NREN community.
Carolina Howard Felicissimo graduated in Computer Engineering (1996 - 2001) with a Master's degree (2002 - 2004) and PhD (2004 - 2008) in Computer Science, emphasis in Software Engineering, all from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). PhD internship (2006 - 2008) at Université Pierre et Marie Curie - Paris 6 (UPMC, Paris VI). Since 2015, she has been working as Research and Development Coordinator at RNP, the Brazilian National Research Educational Network. Her projects focus on managing research data in digital repositories, contributing to the promotion of Open Science practices in Brazil. In addition to Information Technology skills to propose technological infrastructures, she also has Information Science skills to evaluate information infrastructures, as well as their related architectures and services.
Sabrina currently supports BCNET as Director, Member Engagement and Communications, where she leads initiatives that strengthen relationships across the organization's broad stakeholder community.
An accomplished professional with a passion for cultivating meaningful connections and making a positive impact, Sabrina draws on a strong background in leadership, stakeholder relations, and strategic communications. Throughout her career, she has successfully developed and implemented corporate-level programs that have elevated public awareness and enhanced organizational reach.
Sabrina is recognized for her talent in creating collaborative environments and aligning diverse stakeholders toward shared objectives. Her unique ability to foster effective, productive, and inclusive relationships makes her a driving force behind collective success.
Beyond her professional achievements, Sabrina brings energy, vision, and authenticity to every project—building bridges that drive innovation and lasting impact.
IT&D Delivery Lead at Manchester Metropolitan University, leading the project team on the Azure-based High Performance Computing platform project. Focusing on the coordination of team members for all the associated activities to bring the platform to life. Working closely with the Research community on a number of key projects as Manchester Met strives to its strategic goals of supporting and empowering staff.
Ann Kristin is the Head of Design at Sikt – Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research, where she leads over 25 designers working across a diverse portfolio of products. With her blend of design and engineering expertise, Ann Kristin specializes in collaborative problem solving at the intersection of technology and human-centered design. Her vision is to ensure that people are at the heart of both Sikt’s products and work culture.
Mary Friedrich is the Director of ShareIT and Member Relations at Cybera. She is a true advocate for shared services and the power of community through driving economies of scale, information sharing, and collaboration.
Mary is also a champion and a strong steward of national partnering. Mary has led multiple provincial and national collaborations for a variety of shared procurements and initiatives with peers across the NRENs, group purchasing ogranizations, CUCCIO, and IT leaders in higher educations - all with the goal of bringing together like-minded individuals across the country to share best practices. Mary is a graduate of the Global Leadership Development Program within the Global Research and Education Network community and active participant in the Supply Chain Canada Leaders Council for the Public Sector. She is a sought after speaker on topics related to building effective collaborations, talent management, and running a shared public procurement program on both the provincial and national level.
Mary’s career portfolio includes leadership roles in regional management, change management, learning and development, instructional design, business analysis, project implementation, and organizational effectiveness.
More than 20 years of experience in Cyber Security, working as Information Security Manager, Leading Red and Blue Team, Data Privacy team (LGPD) and Identy and Acess Manager Team.
Graduated in Computer Network Administration, MBA in Cyber Security and certificated in CEH Practical and Master, ISO 27001, DPO, Data Privacy Foundation and Praticioner, Itil.
Tom Fryer joined GÉANT as a member of the International Relations Team in 2008. In March 2019 he became Head of International Relations, and today leads a team of four that supports GÉANT’s relationships with R&E networking partners in other world regions and manages EU-funded regional development projects, including AfricaConnect3 and EUMEDplus. Tom supports dialogue specifically with global R&E network partners in North Africa and the Middle East, and is project manager of the EUMEDplus project. He also supports relations with RENs in the USA and Canada, and previously supported relations with RedCLARA, and was project manager of the BELLA-S project and a member of the BELLA Steering Committee.
Lise joined GÉANT as CEO in November 2024.
Lise has served as Director General of ETNO, the Brussels-based association representing Europe’s leading telecom operators, for nine years. In August 2022 Lise was nominated as a member of the United Nations Internet Governance Forum Leadership Panel. From 2023 – 2025 she was Chair of the Danish Cyber security organisation “Security Tech Space”, and from 2017 until 2024, Lise was a Board member of European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO). She served from 2016-2022 as Chairwoman of the Boards of Public Interest Registry (.org domain name registry) and the Public Technical Identifiers (PTI), formerly IANA, and affiliate of ICANN.
From 2009 to 2016, Lise was Chief Operating Officer of DK Hostmaster and DIFO, the company managing .dk domain names. From September 2014 to October 2016, Lise also chaired the Cross Community Working Group for the IANA Stewardship Transition, building on her strong network within the internet community. Lise has over 20 years of experience within the internet, technology, and telecoms industries and is a lifelong member of ATV – the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences – an independent think tank.
Joost Gadellaa is a Technical Product Manager at SURF, the Dutch NREN. He works and advises on their services such as email security and certificate infrastructure. Currently, he's also working on supporting offensive testing (red teaming, hacking events, attack surface mapping, etc.) as a new way of increasing the cyber resilience of SURF's members.
John oversees learning across all stages, from primary to higher education, research, and beyond into adult education. His focus is on empowering students, educators, and researchers with Google technology and AI to enhance learning outcomes.
Maria Isabel Gandia is the Head of Communications at CSUC (Consorci de Serveis Universitaris de Catalunya), responsible for the management of the Regional Research and Education Network in Catalonia (Anella Científica), the Neutral Internet Point in Catalonia (CATNIX) and its network services and tools. She is also a member of the GÉANT project, where she works on Orchestration, Automation and Virtualisation topics, like the Network Automation eAcademy. She participates in several working groups and panels of national and international experts related to the network, such as the SIG-NOC Steering Committee, the ESNOG forum, the Euro-IX Board or the Network and Performing Arts Production Workshop.
Sara works at CSC-IT Center for Science in the International Collaboration and Partnerships Unit where she leads the team responsible for CSC’s strategic engagement in European initiatives related to research and education. Examples of such initiatives include EOSC, European Common Data Spaces, AI Factories, Destination Earth and EuroHPC. Sara also serves as Director of the EOSC Association from 2022 and she is a member of the Research Data Alliance (RDA) Council from 2024.
Michel has been active in the network architecture world since early 2000. In September 2021 Michel started at Nomios Netherlands as a solution lead for the Telecommunications and ISP sector. In this role he was technically leading the Telecommunications and ISP team and helping with their network and security related challenges.
In November 2022 his role changed, and he became the customer facing CTO for customers that Nomios serves in the Netherlands for several industries such as education.
Michel [ˈmɪ.çl̩] finished his studies in Informatics as well as Information Technology in 2011. Since 2010 he has been with DFN-CERT in different roles. He's been named DPO for DFN-CERT in 2015.
Since 2019 he has been involved in the GN project in Work Package 8 in either Task 1 or Task 0, and since 2024 he has been involved in the Security Bootcamps.
Michel is also chair of the Steering Committee of GEANT SIG-ISM since late 2024.
Jane Gifford has built a diverse international career in media, marketing, and communications spanning several decades. She began her career in creative services, publicity, and editorial roles with leading media organisations in London, Sydney, Los Angeles, and New York. Since returning to Australia a decade ago, she has held communications roles across the arts, higher education, and technology sectors. Jane is currently Director of Marketing and Communications at AARNet, Australia’s NREN, where she drives strategic marketing and communications to position AARNet’s technologies and services and highlight their impact on research and education. A passionate storyteller, she enjoys shaping narratives that connect audiences with the transformative power of technology.
Dr. Mary Grammatikou (female) is a Senior Researcher at the NETMODE laboratory of NTUA and she serves also as a Teaching Assistance in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering in NTUA. She obtained her Diploma and the PhD degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering, both from NTUA. Her main research interests lie in the areas of service management, security, cloud computing, e-service & e-learning architectures, 5G networking architectures and multimedia analysis. She has been involved in various relevant RTD projects (e.g. Up2U, GN3, GN3PLUS, GN4, GN4-3, GN5-1,2, SUCCESS, Up2DigiSchool, We-Collab, NOVI, SOULSS, OpenLab) where in many time she was actively involved in the technical coordination of innovative technical solutions on the field of digital learning architectures, network monitoring and data analytics. The last years she has actively involved in the coordination role as Technical Coordinator of the Up2U European project (how to bridge the gap between the secondary education and University). She has served on several journal and conference editorial positions (e.g. JONS, SPECTS, SAM). She has more than 80 publications in high level international journals and conferences.
Annabel joined GEANT in 2012. She is the Work Package lead for Stakeholder Engagement in the GN5-2 project.
Simon is the Technical Manager for Network and Services at SingAREN. He is one of the operators managing the SingAREN Open Exchange Points-of Presence within Singapore, UK and US,
Teresa has over 30 years’ experience in Human Resources, Employment & Workplace Relations. She is a globally recognised leader in the design and delivery of leadership development training programmes, including mentoring programmes, and executive leadership coaching. Teresa has a strong track record of achieving positive and lasting change on initiatives pertaining to diversity & inclusion, gender-based violence, legislative change, Collective Agreement & Union negotiations, complex workplace investigations, acquisitions & divestitures, cultural change programmes, workforce management & structural design, and Board & CEO planning & recruitment. Teresa is currently developing and leading the Global Leadership Development Programme for our global NREN community.
While pursuing his master’s degree at Brno University of Technology, Oliver is also a part-time researcher at CESNET, the Czech national research and education network. His work centers on boosting the performance of stateful network applications and developing smart caching techniques.
Currently, he is developing a versatile FPGA accelerator designed to handle stateful network processing at speeds of up to 400 Gbps, utilizing external memory for record storage. This concept originated in his bachelor’s thesis and has since evolved into a patent-pending solution.
A Zimbabwean by birth, Guy first came to South Africa to study at the smallest public university in the country in a move that was ultimately to last some 20 years. As a postgraduate computer science student, he got a part-time job deploying connectivity into disadvantaged schools in the local township under the auspices of a multidisciplanary research project. That turned out to be a formative experience that showed the life-changing power of even the most basic Internet access. After moving to the university's central IT division, he played a key roll in the early adoption of eduroam in South Africa. He joined the South African NREN in 2016 to incubate its identity federation, and currently head ups their trust & identity services portfolio. He has served on the board of the Internet Service Providers Association, and as a technical advisor to the South African domain name regulator.
Chris Hancock is Chief Executive Officer of AARNet, Australia’s Academic
and Research Network. Chris came to the role in 2004 with 25 years of
executive leadership experience, including 15 years in the media and
telecommunications sectors.
As CEO, Chris has overseen extraordinary growth. Under his leadership, AARNet
has extended the nation’s advanced network infrastructure and developed a suite
of leading-edge technologies and solutions, enabling Australia’s participation on
the world stage for research, science, education and innovation. Today, AARNet
serves Australian universities and the CSIRO, as well as many health and research
organisations, schools, vocational training institutions, cultural organisations and
specialist content providers.
Chris has an Executive MBA from the University of New South Wales. Prior to
joining AARNet, he held several senior executive positions at the Seven Television
Network, Vodafone and Optus. At Optus, Chris was Managing Director of Optus
Business and an integral member of the senior executive team that completed
the IPO and subsequent sale of Optus to Singtel.
Chris is a past Chair of the Internet Industry Association and a member of the
Global REN CEOs Forum and Cyber Security Group. He is a director of the
board of the Australian American Leadership Dialogue and a past director of
the boards of the New England Girls’ School, the Smart Services CRC and the
Starlight Foundation. In January 2021, Chris was awarded a Member of the Order
of Australia (AM) for significant service to education an online research networks,
and to Australia-USA relations.
Ann was a student of English and History whose e-mail didn’t work. Learning what was behind a broken email system was one of the steps on a journey that took her to study computers and to become Network Operations Manager at HEAnet. A change of country and NREN to SWITCH found her moving away from the packets and fibres into ten intense, amazing years of GÉANT Activity Leadership She is now Reliability Engineering Coach at SWITCH and continues to believe in a moral imperative that NRENs must do good in what we do and how we do it. She will also talk to anyone willing to listen about standards for incident management.
Peter Havekes is a Technical Productmanager in the Trust & Identity team of SURF. Working on identity and access solutions such as eduID, Openconext and SURFconext invite.
Network Architect and Researcher at Optical Networks Department in CESNET, a.l.e. .
Ariela is a Communications Specialist at Arnes, the Slovenian NREN. With a Master's Degree in English and General Linguistics, she is especially fond of finding ways to join different cultures, experiences, and projects in unifying collaborations that - at the same time - highlight the differences which enrich our world. Her passion is in visual and performing arts, literature, sports, as well as learning new things with curiosity. Ariela is a SIG-Marcomms SC member and a member of the Géant Community Committee.
Edit is Director General of the strategic foresight company, Vision & Values situated in Brussels and is Senior EU Liaison Adviser for GÉANT. She is Chair of the Administrative Board of the European Union’s Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators (ACER). She Chairs the Science Business Widening group. She is Board member at Research Data Alliance (RDA) Europe and at the Transatlantic Policy Network (TPN). She co-chairs the RDA FAIR Data Maturity Model Working Group.
Prior to establishing her company, she served two consecutive terms in the European Parliament as an Member (MEP) (2004-2014). She served on Committees regarding the budget, budgetary discharge, internal market, industry, research, and space policy as well as energy. She also served on the governance of several parliamentary forums (European Energy Forum, European Internet Foundation, Knowledge 4 Innovation, Kangaroo Group etc.). Prior, she was member of the Hungarian Parliament in which role she was delegate to the Council of Europe. Before her political engagement, she worked for the private sector as regional sales and technical manager for a specialty chemicals company, National Starch & Chemical (part of Unilever and later ICI).
She has an MSc in food conservation engineering. She was Research Fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and Teaching Assistant at the University of Horticulture. Edit holds a Certificate of Company Direction for strategic marketing, financial management and company law from the Institute of Directors.
Gustavo Araújo is an R&D coordinator at RNP, working with development and implementation teams of R&D projects in cyberinfrastructure on the topics of OpenRAN, 5G/6G networks, Software Defined Networks, network visualization, advanced internet, and testbeds.
Sarah is passionate about helping people to develop personally and professionally. She joined GÉANT in 2021 to lead GÉANT’s Learning & Development team (GLAD) and the GN5-1 Human Capital Development task (WP1 T5), which is responsible for developing the skills of GÉANT’s project contributors and sharing knowledge with the wider Research & Education community. Learning plays a key role in attracting and retaining talented people, so GLAD delivers a range of programmes to develop vital skills and engage the next generation.
Sarah loves European culture and history, and travels to France and Italy regularly, having lived and worked in both as a student. Before GÉANT, she spent 10 years as an Executive Coach, working one-to-one with leaders and high potential employees, and 10 years in sales and customer relationships, which took her all over Europe and beyond.
Wouter Huisman holds an MSc in Physics and has been contributing to the development and innovation of the Dutch national research and education network at SURF for over a decade. With a strong technical foundation in the optical and switching domains, he initially joined SURF as a Technical Product Manager NetherLight & Lightpaths, and moved on to a Network Architect role, where he played a key role in designing and implementing the SURFnet7 and SURFnet8 networks.
Currently, as the Product Owner of the SURF Automation & Orchestration Stack, Wouter oversees the development and deployment of SURF’s Workflow Orchestrator and Network Dashboard.
Richard is a programmer in the research team at CESNET, the Czech National Research and Education Network, focusing on Linux drivers and command line tools. He is currently enrolled in a bachelor's degree program in computer science at the Brno University of Technology.
Richard's project focuses on integrating XDP technology into the network driver for the CESNET NDK FPGA platform as an alternative to DPDK and a proprietary API.
Hendrik Ike is a Public Affairs Specialist who works for GÉANT, a European association which serves the research and education networking community by providing connectivity and developing services. GÉANT's essential terabit-ready network is the most advanced and well-connected research and education network in the world. Hendrik is responsible for developing and maintaining channels of communication with European institutions and the National Research and Education Network community, and is also responsible for GÉANT’s positioning towards global Internet Governance.
Prior to his position at GÉANT, Hendrik worked in the policy-making sphere in Brussels, both for the public sector within the Cabinet of the President of the Committee of the Regions, and for FleishmanHillard, a global public affairs consultancy.
Senior HPC Engineer at Manchester Metropolitan University, leading the technical evolution of our Azure-based High Performance Computing platform. With a career rooted in Unix/Linux systems engineering, I’ve spent years deep in the technical trenches, spending many an evening patching Solaris/RHEL, clearing out bloated log directories, expanding systems memory as it creaks under load, and diplomatically reminding users not to treat their home directories like data dumps. I take pride in solving problems the "right way"... by fixing broken systems instead of simply rebooting them.
Specialist in regulation and compliance in tertiary education - Jisc
My expertise includes intellectual property law, data protection law and accessibility law.
I have work experience in criminal law and taxation law.
Innovation consultant at Jisc - specialising in emerging and new technologies for the higher education, further education, and research sectors.
I am a passionate communications specialist with a strong background in strategic communication, digital marketing, and media production. I hold a Bachelor's degree in Mass Communication and am currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Strategic Communications at Makerere University. I am also a Certified Digital Marketer from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM).
My experience spans both corporate and nonprofit sectors. I serve as a Communications Officer at the Research and Education Network for Uganda (RENU), where I am involved in content creation, media relations, and digital strategy. I have also worked with organizations such as Techno Brain BPO, The Salvation Army, and Multichoice Uganda, contributing to public relations, and marketing initiatives.
I am a creative storyteller who enjoys turning complex ideas into clear, engaging narratives across social media, video, and print platforms. I believe in the power of communication to inform, inspire, and drive positive change.
Away from work, I enjoy playing the saxophone in my free time, often using music as another way to connect with people and express creativity.
Naira Kocharyan is the Communications Manager at the Institute for Informatics and Automation Problems of the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia. She holds an MBA and a Master’s in Political Science and International Affairs from the American University of Armenia.
With over a decade of experience in science communication and international collaboration, Naira has contributed to EU-funded projects such as EaPConnect, Erasmus+, and others. From 2019 to 2024, she served on the Steering Committee of SIG-Marcomms, supporting cross-community initiatives and representing the Eastern Partnership region. Her work focuses on strategic communication, stakeholder engagement, and advancing innovation in research and education.
Dr. Kireeti Kompella is senior vice president and chief engineer for the WAN at Juniper Networks, He has deep experience in Packet Transport, large-scale MPLS, VPNs, VPLS and Layer 1 to Layer 3 networking, and is very active in the IETF as author of several Internet Drafts and RFCs.
Scott is a Senior Research Scientist and part of the CILogon project at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, United States.
Sergejs Kozlovičs is a leading researcher (a mathematician and computer scientist) at the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science of the University of Latvia. He is also an associate professor at the University of Latvia. Currently, Sergejs is focusing on quantum communications and quantum-secure cryptography, in particular, on how to connect the Classical and the Quantum Internet. His other interests include mathematical foundations of Computer Science, algorithms, quantum computing, web and semantic web technologies.
Sergejs received the Werner von Siemens Excellence Award for his PhD thesis on software architecture. He is also a hexadecimal dollar owner — an award issued by famous computer scientist Donald E. Knuth, professor emeritus of the Art of Computer Programming at Stanford University.
Kajetan Kubik is an AI engineer at the Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center, where he develops solutions in large-scale data processing, recommender systems, and real-time anomaly detection in streaming environments. He is involved in international research projects, including fiber-optical sensing using distributed acoustic sensing. His interests span big data systems, quantum machine learning, and LLM-based applications. He holds a MSc in Artificial Intelligence at the Poznań University of Technology.
Denim Latić is working as a security analyst and part of the CSIRT for Fondation Restena, the NREN of Luxembourg.
Cybersecurty is an ever-evolving field and so, he embarks on a perpetual journey to do his best to be able to face new and old threats in the cyberspace. Furthermore, he is enthusiastic about raising awareness on cybersecurity related issues to both small and large audiences.
Yann Le Franc, PhD is the CEO and Scientific Director of e‐Science Data Factory S.A.S.U. Created in 2014, e-Science Data Factory is a French R&D company aiming at proposing innovative solutions for data management to accelerate growth and progress. The company leverages its participation into European Research Infrastructure projects to provide cutting-edge services and develop innovative data management tools and architectures.
Yann Le Franc has a PhD in Neurosciences and Pharmacology in 2004. After a postdoctoral experience in the US, he worked on data management projects for Neurosciences in the context of the International Neuroinformatics Coordinating Facility (INCF) where he developed a strong expertise in ontology design and semantic web technologies. He then contributed to several Research Infrastructure projects aiming at building EOSC, the European Open Science Cloud (EUDAT, EOSC-Hub,…) as an expert on Semantic Web, ontology design and FAIR Principles.
He is co‐chairman of the Research Data Alliance Vocabulary and Semantic Service Interest Group and of the FAIR Mappings Working Group. Recently, he became the Head of the EUDAT Secretariat, a pan-European e-Infrastructure, providing data management services, storage and computing services to European researchers.
Simon has worked at Switch since 1996, most of the time as a Network Engineer—with a multi-year excursion into building compute/storage Infrastructure-as-a-Service. His current main interests are in end-to-end performance, network measurement, and automation.
Stefan is working at the Swedish NREN Sunet as a service manager for the e-signature service eduSign. He is also involved in EU collaborations such as the European Digital Student Service Infrastructure (EDSSI) project and the development of the EU Digital Identity Wallet (EUDIW).
Dona Lolić is a cybersecurity adviser in National CERT sector in CARNET - Croatian Academic and Research Network. She has a Masters Degree in computer science research (Information and Communication Sciences). She is a member of Incident Handling Team, and her duties include reporting on national and EU level, incident handling and cyber crisis management. She has experience in organizing national CTF competitions, raising security awareness and she was the project coordinator for ZoomInPinkHats project.
Vuong Mai is an Assistant Professor at the School of Computer Science, AI and Electronics, Faculty of Engineering and Digital Technologies, University of Bradford, UK. He is also a core team member of the Bradford-Renduchintala Centre for Space AI. Prior to joining Bradford, he worked as a Research Assistant Professor at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), South Korea. His current research interests include optical wireless, B5G/6G, aerospace communications, and space AI.
Tanja is a Public Affairs Officer in GÉANT’s EU Liaison Team. As part of her role, she wrestles with EU legislation and helps the team in providing long-term navigation to GÉANT’s governance and the NRENs. Her work focuses on bridging the gap between policy and practice, “translating” and dissecting what happens in the European institutions.
David Maier is an Advisor for Quantum Technologies at SURF, where he leads the deployment of the QKD testbed. With a background in theoretical physics, specializing in entanglement networks, he now focuses on deploying quantum communication infrastructure and exploring use cases for hybrid quantum computing algorithms. He’s excited to share insights from his work at TNC 2025 and to connect with other NRENs.
Giulia Malaguarnera is Outreach and Engagement Officer at OpenAIRE, where she supports the adoption of Open Science practices and contributes to the development of open scholarly communication infrastructures. She holds a PhD in Neuropharmacology and has experience in academia, industry, and research policy. Former president of Eurodoc, she is currently involved in the GraspOS project and the CoARA Working Group on research assessment.
Edoardo Martelli is an experienced network engineer in the Communication Systems group of the CERN IT department. His expertise is in the field of Internet connectivity, campus and datacentre networks, network security and firewalls. Edoardo chair the community that provides LHCOPN and LHCONE the international networks for the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid
Francisca is a Systems Analyst at the Central IT Services of the University of Málaga. She also serves on the steering committee of eduGAIN, contributing to the strategic development of global identity federation services. In addition to her professional role, she has participated in scientific research focused on mathematical models and solitons, collaborating on various interdisciplinary projects. Committed to social impact, she volunteers with Inspiring Girls Spain, promoting STEM careers among young women.
Kate Maxwell is the General Manager for Worldwide Education industry at Microsoft, where she delivers on Microsoft’s mission to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more. Maxwell is an accomplished technology leader and STEM education advocate with 20 years of experience supporting Public Sector customers and students around the world. She has expertise in digital transformation, engineering & technology strategy, and cultural reform, and is a sought-afterpublic speaker, author, and innovator. Maxwell holds two patents and inspires audiences on keynote stages and conference proceedings both domestically and abroad. Before joining the global Education industry at Microsoft, Maxwell served as Chief Technology Officer for the Microsoft Worldwide Defense & Intelligence industry (2020-2023). Prior to that, she held variousDefense Industrial Base leadership positions within RTX (formerly Raytheon), including Technical Director of the Navigation & Modernization Solutions product line ($2.4B), Chief Engineer of theProduct Support business ($700M), and Director of the Raytheon Innovation Center.
Maxwell is a passionate advocate for STEM and a diversity & inclusion thought leader in the tech community. She serves on the Board of Directors for TechPoint Foundation for Youth, an Indiana-based non-profit connecting underprivileged students with opportunities in STEM, as well as TechPoint, an organization focused on growing the Indiana tech ecosystem. She also launched the annual Maxwell Scholarship for Women in Computing and Engineering at her high school alma mater. Maxwell was named #1 of the “Top 100 Women in Tech” by Technology Magazine in 2023, and one of “100 Women in Tech Leaders to Watch” by WomenTech in 2022 & 2023. She was honored as the Indianapolis Business Journal (IBJ) Tech Executive of the Year in 2022, was a Forty Under 40 recipient in 2021, and a Woman of Influence in 2019. Kate is active in the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and is a two-time national award winner. Maxwell holds a Master’s Degree in Systems Engineering from George Mason University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown. She is anoutdoor enthusiast and enjoys skiing, paddle boarding, traveling, and finding adventure wherever lifetakes her.
Garvan is HEAnet's Brokerage Services Manager. He has over 35 years experience in ICT across a range of sectors including education, telecommunications, manufacturing and financial services.
He holds a B.Sc. in Computer Applications from DCU and an M.Sc. from TCD in Management of Information Systems.
When not thinking about how to save HEAnet's clients time, effort and money, he enjoys training guide dog puppies as well as all things Italian.
Brenna Meade is the Senior Network Architect for International Networks at Indiana University, responsible for planning, implementation, and maintenance of the network infrastructure while collaborating with domestic and global partners to resolve network issues and support research activities. She originally joined International Networks as a Network Systems Analyst, ensuring capacity and reliability for NEA3R and TransPAC5 projects. In November 2023, she was appointed Program Director for the Workforce in IT Networking at SC (WINS) program, Prior to Indiana University, Meade worked in campus networking at Colorado State University, became a Network Engineer for the University of Denver, and later served as a Senior Network Engineer for Arapahoe County Government designing and supporting county networks.
Sikt's senior advisor international strategy, long term contributor to the European and Nordic NREN communities, chair of the FIleSender & SimpleSAMLphp open source community boards and former co-chair of the EOSC Task Force for Financial Sustainability. Leading the Above-the-net service concepts in the GN5-2 cloud work package, together with Morten Kjeldgaard.
Neda Moeini is a Senior Software Engineer with over 10 years of experience in developing software solutions for complex, high-performance systems.
She currently works at GÉANT, developing software solutions that support the operation, automation, and evolution of the GÉANT network.
Her expertise spans backend development, software architecture, DevOps practices, and infrastructure automation.
Kellie leads strategic projects on digital accessibility, assistive technology, and inclusive practice in UK further and higher education at Jisc. Jisc is the UK digital, data and technology agency focused on tertiary education, research and innovation. She is co-chair of Accessible Digital Futures (2023-25), a collaborative project looking at unlocking the potential for accessible digital and AI technologies in higher education, and project partner for the second phase of the UKRI-funded project, Teaching Accessibility in the Digital Skill Set (2025-28). She represents Jisc at the Parliamentary Internet, Communications and Technology Forum (PICTFOR) and the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Assistive Technology. Published research includes 'Technology acceptance and trust: Overlooked considerations in young people's use of digital mental health interventions' available as an open access article in Health Policy and Technology (2022).
Edward Moynihan is the Executive Director of International Networks at Indiana University. In this role, Moynihan leads the IN@IU team and serves as the Principal Investigator of both the NEA3R and TransPAC5 projects. Edward also works closely with IN@IU’s domestic and international partners to promote the effective use of international research networking resources and to deliver enhanced functionality to research collaborators and other R and E networking stakeholders.
Moynihan originally joined International Networks in 2017 as Principal Network Engagement Analyst. Supporting the NEA3R and TransPAC5 projects by working directly with scientists and researchers to help achieve better international file-transfer performance and to increase utilization of IU’s international research networking systems.
Prior to joining the IN@IU team, Moynihan led Global Programs at Internet2 and served as Co-Secretary of the Global Research and Education Networking CEO Forum.
Matt Mullins is the Associate Director for Senior Network Engineering at Internet2 (US national Research & Education network) where he leads their senior network engineering team. He is currently focusing on Internet2's upcoming packet platform refresh for the core network as well as using AI to figure out how we can use it to troubleshoot operational issues on the network.
Ieva Muraskiene serves as Strategy and Policy Officer at the Nordic Research and Education Network (NORDUnet), where she leads efforts on the Polar Connect initiative—a strategically significant project aimed at establishing secure and resilient connectivity through the Arctic, linking Europe, East Asia and North America.
Ieva’s engagement with research and education networks began in 2008 with her work at LITNET, the Lithuanian R&E network. Her role expanded to the international stage in 2017, when she led a team of experts for the Baltic Sea Regional Study under the GÉANT GN4-2 Project’s SA1 Task 2, focusing on regional collaboration and infrastructure planning.
Since 2018, Ieva has been closely involved in the EaPConnect project, which addresses digital divide challenges and supports the development of advanced NREN services in the Eastern Partnership countries—Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine. Her work has particularly centered on identifying and securing long-term connectivity solutions for the region.
In recognition of her work within GÉANT community, Ieva was appointed in 2019 to the GÉANT Network Infrastructure Advisory Committee (NIAC). In this capacity, she contributed expertise and guidance to the GN4-3N project, supporting the ongoing development of the GÉANT backbone network.
Through the years, Ieva has gained experience across national and international R&E networking initiatives, strengthened understanding of connectivity, policy, infrastructure development, and regional cooperation within the global R&E community. Ieva is a passionate member of GÉANT community, and firmly believes that together we can achieve far more than we ever could alone.
With a background in computer science and networking, Maria began her career in software engineering before supporting critical systems as a network engineer at National Research Foundation Laboratories for Accelerator-Based Science. She joined TENET in 2021 as a senior network support engineer and now serves as service support manager.
Caroline Namuddu is a network engineer at the Research and Education Network for Uganda (RENU), specializing in capacity building and user engagement. Caroline is passionate about advancing digital infrastructure for education.
Karl Newell is a Network Software Architect at Internet2 (US national Research & Education network) where he leads their network automation and orchestration efforts. He is currently focusing on helping the Internet2 community jump start and expand their network automation endeavors as well as diving into AI to figure out how we can use it to manage networks.
Corporate Communications Specialist at SURF. I love to see myself as a curious, impact-oriented and creative professional who aspires to make the digital world easier. At SURF I focus on the network department, compute and storage & data management.
Thinking from the user's perspective works very well for me. Together with a technician, I make the ideal team for developing a product, digital product environment or customer journey and the associated user wishes. From here I pick up the desired marketing and communication elements and ensure that they are realized.
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eduroam technical wonk at Jisc. Messing about with RADIUS since 2013.
Rajan Parajuli is the Executive Director of the Nepal Research and Education Network (NREN). He has been actively engaged with NREN communities for the past 17 years, having joined NREN in 2008 and serving the organization in various capacities. In addition to leading the management and operations of Nepal’s NREN, he is also a researcher with a strong interest in ICTs for development, telemedicine and digital health, and technology-driven social transformation.
He holds a doctorate degree from the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, with research focused on the intersection of gender, technology, and health, with a particular emphasis on telemedicine applications in rural Nepal.
Ben Parker is a project manager for the EuroTeQ engineering university alliance, working to improve the scale, quality, and ease of mobility for students and staff across the partner universities and beyond. He is currently leading the work around the EuroTeQ virtual campus, plus the automated joint course catalogue, which requires increased collaboration and creativity between the alliance partners – building something future-proof and interoperable. Ben has worked across Higher Education, Vocational Education, and Adult Skills commissioning.
Tomasz Parkoła is the Director of Network Services Division at Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center. He manages R&D teams delivering innovative technologies for health & medicine, education, governmental agencies & public institutions as well as cultural heritage & digital humanities. He oversees a team of 80+ professionals with expertise on AI & analytics, data management & discovery, long-term archiving & workflows, cloud & DevOps, UX/UI research & design, frontend & backend as well as QA & support services. He has been involved in a number of R&D projects, e.g. SSHOC, HERIFORGE, Data Space for Cultural Heritage, LUMEN, GRAPHIA, Dariah.lab Poland, Dariah.hub Poland, ERIHS.pl, 3DBigDataSpace, 3D-4CH. He is a board member in the IMPACT Centre of Competence, a co-head of DARIAH-EU's VCC on E-infrastructure, a chair of the OPERAS-PL consortium board and a vice-chair of the DARIAH-PL consortium board. He is an author or co-author of several dozens of scientific and popular science publications. He holds several professional certifications, e.g. PMP®, PMI-ACP, UX-PM, ITIL DPI.
I am the Head of International at Jisc, where I lead on our international engagement with NRENs and global partners, and give strategic guidance on the internationalisation of Jisc's products and services.
Senior Procurement Manager at GÉANT Amsterdam since July 2021. Specialised in European (and Dutch) Procurement Law and Contracting law. Monique is the task lead of the procurement of the new cloud tender OCRE2024 within the GN5-1 project.
Researcher / Cloud R&D Engineer. His current research interests include virtualisation, intelligent service management in the context of 5G/6G, and orchestration platforms for Cloud Continuum based on SDN/NFV. He has experience in Cloud migration, CI/CD & DevOps methodology, and is accustomed to scoping and leading proof of concept (PoC) and pilot deployments. Open source advocate.
Olga Popcova is the Marketing Communications Officer at RENAM, the Research and Educational Networking Association of Moldova, and since March 2018 has been engaged in EaPConnect Project communications, supporting and promoting RENAM infrastructure and services to research and academic users/stakeholders. She is a member of the Steering Committee of SIG-RED (Special Interest Group on Research Engagement Development). Since 2023, she has been involved in FileSender communications.
Tetiana is a marketing consultant at URAN, the Ukrainian NREN. She has been part of the team since 2018, overseeing social media, the website, and event planning. Since the outbreak of the full-scale Russian invasion, she has experienced first-hand the importance of community support in times of crisis — a story she will share at the Community Hub. When not in marketing mode, she translates fiction into Ukrainian and recharges through books, dreams of post-war travels, and cuddles with her Maine Coon kitten.
Hanna-Mari Puuska is the Director of Digital Service Ecosystems at CSC – IT Center for Science. Her unit provides services in digitalization and digitalization for the Finnish education and research and supports higher education institutions and other stakeholders in understanding and managing the transformation brought by AI. Puuska has 20 years of expertise in digital services, analytics, interoperability, and information management. She holds a PhD in bibliometrics and has authored numerous scientific publications on e.g. science policy and indicators.
Evelien Renders facilitates international collaboration in higher education at SURF, the cooperative organisation for IT in Dutch education and research. Complex processes, manageable data, and interoperability between systems make her happy. She keeps track of international developments in student mobility and other logistical processes. In doing so, she contributes to flexible and agile education, both in the Netherlands and abroad. With a commitment to public values and open standards, Evelien advocates for communication, trust, and collaboration between IT stakeholders in higher education.
Jose Rezende received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electronics Engineering from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 1988 and 1991, respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from Université Pierre et Marie Curie in 1997. Since 1998 he is associate professor at Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and since 2016 he is also R&D consultant at RNP. His current research interests are in mobile networks, wireless communication, performance evaluation and experimental platforms.
MSc. Piotr Rydlichowski - graduated from the Faculty of Electronics and Telecommunications at the Poznań University of Technology, specializing in Telecommunications Systems. Doctoral studies in "Modern Information Engineering" with particular focus on microwaves theory and techniques, EM waves theory, propagation and simulation. From 2008 at Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center in the Network Technologies Division. Participated in several scientific and research projects, both Polish and European, including: GÉANT, ROAM, COMPLETE, NLPQT. Responsible for the optical networks laboratory. Since 2017, participating in projects focusing on quantum technologies - computing and quantum communication. Participates in the activities of the OpenQKD and QUAPITAL projects and is responsible for activities related to the QKD technology within the GEANT GN4-3 WP6 group.
Léonie Schäfer is Senior Manager Global Liaison at the German National Research and Education Network (DFN). At DFN, she is responsible for coordinating DFN's contribution to international projects and joint developments. At GÉANT, Leonie represents DFN as a delegate and takes on various tasks in the area of programme planning, EU liaison, international relations and stakeholder management within GÉANT projects.
Prior to joining DFN, Léonie worked for several years in science, where she conducted her own research and was responsible for the management of EU research projects. Later, she worked as a Scientific Officer at the EU Commission, DG INFSO, dealing with innovation policies, new research trends and emerging research communities in ICT-related technologies. Léonie holds a diploma and a PhD in Computer Science from the Technical University Berlin.
Olaf holds a master´s degree in Computer Science and Telematics from NTNU and works as the head of the research and education network in Sikt, Norway.
John is the Head of Projects & Managed Services at the Australian Access Federation. He is the product manager for AAF's cloud identity provider service (Rapid Identity Provider) and privacy-preserving student verification service (VerifID). With 25 years’ experience in the higher education and research sector, John has a strong track record of successfully delivering large, complex projects and in developing innovative approaches to business and technology solutions.
Director of Service at Jisc (UK). Responsible for the end-to-end service lifecycle across network, cloud and cyber security product portfolios.
I’m Ross Shonfeld, Cloud Solution Specialist at University of Nottingham. I work within our digital department, helping fellow staff to get the most out of Cloud. I have been an IT professional for 25 years, working in the Energy, Trading, Retail, Rail, and Aerospace sectors before joining UoN in 2018. My proudest professional achievement is working on the IT component of the Asymptomatic Testing Service during the pandemic, which enabled staff and students to get tested for COVID-19.
Product Area Manager IAM and Mule at Sikt – Norwegian Agency for Shared Services in Education and Research
Matthew Slowe is a Trust & Identity specialist who’s been wrangling Shibboleth, eduroam, and open standards long enough to remember when “federated access” sounded like science fiction. At Jisc, he helps keep the digital infrastructure running smoothly—so students, researchers, and staff can log in, roam, and collaborate without needing a PhD in network configuration (though it wouldn’t hurt).
Matthew is known for making complex identity systems sound almost fun, and for championing open standards like they’re rockstars. Whether he’s demystifying SAML or explaining why your Wi-Fi works in a café in Copenhagen, he brings clarity, wit, and just the right amount of sarcasm to every talk.
I'm an Innovation Consultant at Jisc, leading early-stage product development and digital transformation across cloud and emerging technologies. I specialise in taking complex ideas from discovery to proof of concept.
Jason SooHoo has been at MIT Haystack Observatory since 2003. He currently serves as the IT Manager at the Observatory, but is also part of many research and science projects. Jason was a member of the M2020 Perseverance Mars Rover team and served as Instrument Operations Lead for the MOXIE project. He has also travelled to the Artic to deploy Instrumentation to study the early formations of the universe, EDGES.
For the Event Horizon Telescope project, Jason has been part of the system deployment and operations team which has taken him to the tops of the French alps, dormant volcanoes in Mexico, and even down to Antarctica at the South Pole. He's currently part of the Technical Operations Team for EHT Observation Campaigns.
Father of twins and telecommunication engineer. I spent most of my professional life at University of Pisa (Italy) where I developed my passion for Open Source software and highly available infrastructure. I moved to the Netherlands in 2016 and I started jumping in various ISPs to work on physical and virtual infrastructure. I landed in Geant in 2019 where my focus is network automation. Love the people, the spirit and the values shared by this amazing community.
Mira works in the Partner Relations team at GÉANT, bringing a strong background in programme coordination, strategic support, and facilitating collaboration across diverse research and education communities. Before joining GÉANT, she supported a programme funded by the Dutch Research Council, focusing on FAIR data, sustainable research software, and open science infrastructures. Her interest in the GÉANT community was sparked during her time at CARNET.
Agnieszka Stokłosa has over 20 years of experience in managing European Union funding programmes. She previously served as an administrative and financial coordinator for numerous projects under various European Commission Framework Programmes. Currently, she leads the Projects Administration Department at the Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Center (PSNC), managing a team of 11 experts.
She has extensive experience in interpreting and applying EU regulations, directives, and research and development programme guidelines, ensuring their effective integration into internal organizational policies. Her professional interests lie in the broad field of R&D project management.
Witold Taisner is a PhD student at Poznań University of Technology and also serves as a Machine Learning Researcher at Poznań Supercomputing and Networking Centre. In 2023, Witold Taisner graduated with honors with a B.Sc. in Artificial Intelligence; his thesis on ligand classification using deep learning earned a distinction from the Polish Information Processing Society. He then pursued an M.Sc. focused on utilizing UAVs for structural health monitoring. Currently, his research interests lie in applying generative machine learning techniques to materials science and chemistry, alongside anomaly detection using Distributed Acoustic Sensing.
Mohammad is a senior software engineer with experience in both startups and enterprise environments. He values open source, simplicity, and useful results. He enjoys coding and DevOps, and is now focusing on network automation and workflow orchestration in GÉANT.
Eric Tschirhart is full Professor of Physiology within the Department of Life Sciences and Medicine at the University of Luxembourg.
His research interests have been bronchial hyperreactivity delineation until the late 80s as a PhD student and endothelin receptor antagonist development in a US pharmaceutical research centre for cardiovascular and pulmonary targets until 1992.
As a group leader in the Centre de Recherche Public-Santé (Luxembourg), he then developed a research team to elucidate the control of superoxide anion secretion by calcium ion fluxes in human immune cells. Most developments implicated fluorescence measurement of biological and biochemical processes in live cellsin vitro, with a profound insight in the discovery of calcium-controlled transductional events leading to superoxide anions secretion. A complementary research activity linked to the investigation of oxidative stress consequences within the vascular wall was carried out.
Prof. Eric Tschirhart teaches physiology at the University of Luxembourg within the Bachelor en Sciences de la Vie – Fillière Biologie and at the University of Louvain (medical and pharmacy school) in Belgium. He is also the Study Programme Director of the Master in Technopreneurship.
After joining the University of Luxembourg late 2002, fluorescence-based studies became fully functional in autumn 2004. Aside, an interest was developed for the consequences of spaceflight on animal and human immunological system. Since 2006, he has occupied various positions at the management of the University, being initially special advisor to the President for research management, then Director of Administration; after having managed Academic Affairs as Vice-president for nearly 5 years, he is in charge of Technology Transfer and Fundraising for the University, as Special Advisor to the President. Since January 2019, he is special Advisor to the Rector – UNIVERSEH | European University – University of the Greater Region and since October 2022: Expert for Evaluation of Higher Education Institutes, High Council for the Evaluation of Research and Higher Education (Hcéres, France).
With over 7 years of experience in software development, Nino Tsulaia specializes in both frontend and backend technologies. She has deep expertise in Python, working extensively with Django, Django REST Framework, and Celery to build scalable web applications. Nino also has strong proficiency in React.js for web development and React Native for cross-platform mobile applications on iOS and Android.
Her experience extends to RESTful API development, integrating diverse systems efficiently. She is skilled in MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Cassandra databases and has over a decade of hands-on experience with Linux systems (Ubuntu/CentOS), including both server and desktop environments.
Beyond software, Nino has 10+ years of networking experience, working with Cisco, Juniper, and Sophos devices, including firewalls, routers, and access servers. She also has hands-on expertise with OpenStack Cloud, utilizing its RESTful API for cloud management and automation.
Caroline Tuhwezeine is the Communications Manager at RENU. She has worked in the field of Communications for over 15 years. She joined RENU in 2019 and facilitated the establishment of RENU’s Communications Department. She has since mentored a team of 5 other Communications professionals that have worked together to transform RENU’s brand visibility for the better.
Hildegunn Vada is a Product Area Manager at Sikt, where she leads the work on Feide, the Norwegian solution for federated login and access in the education sector. With a degree in engineering from NTNU and extensive experience in eID and identity management, Hildegunn has worked in various roles as a developer, project manager, and leader. As Product Area Manager for Feide, she is responsible for developing and communicating product strategy, monitoring goal achievement, and setting priorities. Hildegunn is dedicated to ensuring a shared understanding and engagement among everyone working with Feide to promote ownership and delivery capability.
Mark van de Sanden is working as an Enterprise Architect at SURF. He has more than 25 years of experience in managing supercomputers, large scale data infrastructures and has been participating in European projects. He is a data and storage expert and has been leading the data services team for more than 10 years. In EUDAT, Mark is a member of the secretariat. He has been involved in many EOSC related projects (e.g. EOSC-Hub, EOSC Future, DICE, FAIRCORE4EOSC, EOSC-ENTRUST, AARC-TREE) and has been member of the EOSC Architecture working group and the EOSC-A task forces on technical interoperability.
Charlie van Genuchten is Product Manager Privacy and Security at SURF. She organised the first large-scale crisis exercise for SURFnet in 2016 and has been creating exercises with and for Dutch Higher Education Institutions every year since then. In 2017, she created the European CLAW Crisis Management Event for National Research and Education Networks, which has been running every year to great acclaim.
Jonathan is a Network Engineer at Belnet, specializing in Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) and network automation. Alongside his technical role, he gives lectures to students across the country, sharing his expertise on a wide range of network-related topics. Passionate about both innovation and education, he plays a key role in driving the adoption of automation practices in his team while inspiring the next generation of network professionals.
Aurora is a Full Stack Web Developer with a background in communication and multimedia from the University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro (UTAD). She is currently pursuing a master's degree in Cybersecurity at the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo (IPVC), with ongoing research focused on cybersecurity. Aurora's recent work includes a publication on social engineering in IEEE, and her master's thesis explores a proof of concept for risk assessment and compliance through a Zero Trust approach.
EMEA Business Development Manager for Higher Education and Research
From July 2020 focusing Higher Education Institutions supporting digital transformation and journey to the cloud. Major areas of responsibility within the EMEA Education team are:
1 Drive the implementation of the Education strategy in Higher Education and report performance / execution to the International leadership;
2 Central & Regional institutions interactions;
3. Multi-channel sales motions by supporting sales & business development, Higher Education Institutions digital transformation and journey to the cloud. Major areas of responsibility within the EMEA Education team are: Drive the implementation of the Education strategy in Higher Education and report performance / execution to the International leadership; Support local teams in the engagement with Central & Regional institutions to negotiate deals that would have national implications; Project management of our multi-channel sales motions by supporting sales & business development initiative.
Head of the nascent Alexa in Education team in EMEA responsible for the growth and establishment of Alexa as the #1 voice assistant in the market. The main task was to develop and execute a common strategy to position Alexa within Education institutions focusing on three main pillars:
Olaf Verschoor is Head of Procurement at GÉANT, the pan-European network for research and education. Since joining GÉANT in 2019, he has led major procurement initiatives including cloud services and international connectivity. He is currently involved in strategic infrastructure projects such as the Medusa submarine cable. Olaf has over 20 years of experience in both public and private sectors, with previous roles at the Dutch public broadcaster, the Municipality of Utrecht, and Hewlett-Packard.
Dr Domenico Vicinanza is a Senior Research Engagement Manager and the Coordinator for Arts and Humanities at GÉANT. He is also an Associate Professosr of Intelligent Systems and Data Science at Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge. He received his PhD in physics working at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN, Geneva) and he is a professional music composer and orchestrator.
He worked for more than a decade as a Scientific Associate at CERN, where he was a member of the Offline Board for the ALICE experiment and worked on research and development for particle physics detectors.
He has an active collaboration with CERN on auditory display, and with NASA, writing music from data collected by the Voyager 1 and 2 space probes and Mars missions.
His research interests are on the applications of scientific data sonification in physics, neurobiology and motor control.
Ines Vodopivec is deeply committed to advancing digitization theory and practice within heritage institutions on an international scale. Her notable roles include serving as Deputy Director of the National and University Library of Slovenia, being a dedicated member of the UNESCO Memory of the World National Committee, and participating as a member of the IFLA Digital Humanities – Digital Scholarship Committee; Member of the DARIAH Research Data Management Working Group and Member of the RDA Node Slovenia.
More recently, she assumed the role of Secretary General of AI4LAM (Artificial Intelligence for Libraries, Archives, and Museums), further solidifying her leadership and influence in the fields of digital heritage and innovative methodologies. Ines also holds the position of Vice Dean at Nova University’s Faculty of Slovenian and International Studies, where she serves as a distinguished University Professor specializing in Interdisciplinary Methodology and Digital Humanities.
Cynthia Wagner is the Chief Information Security Officer and Security Manager at the Restena Foundation, the national research and education network in Luxembourg. Previously, Cynthia was managing the Restena-Computer Security Incident Response Team. She graduated with distinction from the University of Luxembourg with a PhD in computer science, where she studied the effects of various Machine Learning approaches on flow measurements for improving security. Besides her daily work, she is an active member in different working groups at Geant (the collaboration of European National Research and Education Networks). On a national plan, she is active in various advisory boards and co-founder of Restena’s CyberDay.lu and the Data Privacy Day conference. The more, she is active in teaching.
In her spare time, she loves to work in the garden and exploit new recipes in her kitchen (successfully and not).
Lonneke Walk is team lead Communications & Marketing at SURF. In that role she is responsible for the positioning of SURF and the services, PR and communications. Lonneke is member of SURF’s portfolio committee which keeps track of the status of ongoing developments within the portfolio of SURF. The portfolio committee ensures consistency, consistent quality and well-coordinated business plans and positioning, and monitors that preconditions are met.
A software engineer of Peking University, core member of CARSI (China) federation technical team (Peking University)
Stefan studied Compter Science at the (now) Karlsruhe Institue of Technology, and is working in NREN space at Restena ever since graduating.
His areas of work include European projects, eduroam, AAI infrastructures and, as of recent, management duties in the context of ISO27001 certification.
Albert is the Federation Manager of the InCommon Federation, the US R&E identity federation.
Prior to joining InCommon, Albert led University of California Los Angeles' Information Management Services, which included identity & access management (IAM), enterprise data warehouse, middleware, and web content management.
Albert has been involved in the R&E federated IAM community since early 2000's. He is currently a member of the REFEDS Steering Committee and is active in multiple working groups.
Jason Zurawski is a Science Engagement Engineer at the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) in the Scientific Networking Division of the Computing Sciences Directorate of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. ESnet is the high performance networking facility of the US Department of Energy Office of Science. ESnet''s mission is to enable those aspects of the DOE Office of Science research mission that depend on high performance networking for success. Jason's primary responsibilities include working with members of the research community to identify the role of networking in scientific workflows, evaluate current requirements, and suggest improvements for future innovations.
Jason has worked in computing and networking since 2004, and has a B.S. in Computer Science & Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University earned in 2002, and an M.S. in Computer and Information Science from The University of Delaware earned in 2007. He has previously worked for the University of Delaware and Internet2. Jason resides and works in Bloomington, IN, and may be reached via email at zurawski@es.net.
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TNC25 is co-funded by Europe’s NRENs and the European Union (EU).
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