Two of the eight scientists appointed to a new Science Research Council for optical networking in the United States are from UCSD: Larry Smarr, director of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2); and School of Medicine neuroscientist Mark Ellisman.

National LambdaRail (NLR) is a consortium of leading U.S. research universities and private sector technology companies that are deploying a nationwide optical, Ethernet and IP networking infrastructure. It has gathered a team of leading scientists to ensure NLR resources are available and responsive to a broad range of researchers. The consortium provides researchers unprecedented control over a nationwide network infrastructure with up to 40 individual lightpaths--each of which can transmit data at 10 gigabits per second and be used to deploy dedicated side-by-side, but physically and operationally separate, production and experimental networks. NLR is committed to promoting the extensive and active use of its infrastructure and resources by diverse groups within the scientific research community.

"Some of today's most ambitious scientific research projects rely on the most advanced networking capabilities, such as those available through the National LambdaRail," said Calit2 director Smarr, who also holds the Harry E. Gruber chair in computer science and information technologies in UCSD's Jacobs School of Engineering. "Providing active scientists an integral role in NLR will help ensure it remains responsive to the needs of researchers across a wide range of scientific disciplines."

Joining Smarr on the new council is Mark Ellisman, a professor of neuroscience in the School of Medicine and adjunct professor of Bioengineering in the Jacobs School. Ellisman is a leader in the use of very broadband connectivity for brain research and other scientific disciplines, and directs the Biomedical Informatics Research Network (BIRN). He is also affiliated with Calit2.

The NLR Science Research Council (NSRC) is chaired by David J. Farber, NLR's Chief Scientist and a distinguished professor at Carnegie Mellon University. In addition to Farber and UCSD's Smarr and Ellisman, NLR appointed five other members to the Science Research Council:
- Charlie Catlett, Argonne National Laboratory;
- James Cordes, Cornell University;
- Kelvin Drogemeier, University of Oklahoma;
- Harvey Newman, California Institute of Technology; and
- Ed Seidel, Louisiana State University.

In addition to providing NLR with guidance about principles and policies for the use of the NLR infrastructure in support of scientific research, the NSRC will provide NLR leadership with guidance about opportunities and strategies to ensure the NLR backbone and related resources remain responsive to evolving demands of the science and research environment.

"National LambdaRail makes available to scientific researchers a unique set of resources that can respond to their most demanding networking requirements," said Farber, NLR Chief Scientist and chair of the new council. "Increasingly, leading- edge research projects require the kind networking capabilities NLR has deployed."

The NLR infrastructure is already supporting cutting-edge uses of optical networking capabilities in research and education, including the National Science Foundation-supported Extensible Terascale Facility and OptIPuter projects, the U.S. Department of Energy's UltraScience project, CENIC and the Pacific Northwest Gigapop's Pacific Wave project, and Internet2's Hybrid Optical Packet Infrastructure (HOPI) project.