ORC Director Listed in ICT 2008 Hall of Fame

ORC Director Professor David Payne, has been listed as one of the 25 figures honoured in the ICT 2008 Hall of Fame, along with fellow collegues Professor Wendy Hall and Professor Tim Berners-Lee from the University's School of Electronics and Computer Science.

ICT 2008, taking place at Lyon between 25 and 27 November, is the most important forum for discussing research and public policy in information and communication technologies at European level. The event brings together researchers and innovators, policy and business decision-makers working in the field of digital technologies.

Over 4000 delegates are attending the three-day event at Lyon, which was opened by Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Information, Society and Media. Part of the Exhibition Space at the event is given over to a 'Hall of Fame' of 25 leading figures who have made a unique contribution to the development of ICT and the Web, including three Professors from the School of Electronics and Computer Science: Wendy Hall (President of the ACM), David Payne (Director of the Optoelectronics Research Centre), and Sir Tim Berners-Lee (inventor of the World Wide Web and also Professor at MIT).

The other figures honoured in the Hall of Fame are: Claure Berra, Leonardo Chiarighone, Kalrheinz Brandenburg, Emmanual Desurvire, Hugo De Man, Marco Dorigo, Edsger W Dijkstra, Heinz Gerhauser, Albert Fert, Sten Grillner, Alain Glavieux, Theodor Hansch, Peter Grunberg, Sir Tony Hoare, Ursula Keller, Peter Scitzer, Stephen E Robertson, Karen Sparck Jones, Joseph Sifakis, Nikolas Wirth, Mateo Valero, and Anton Zeilinger.

Professor Wendy Hall, who is a member of the Scientific Council of the European Research Council, is taking part in a plenary conference session entitled 'ICT Excellence Matters'.

The ICT 2008 Event is organised by the European Commission's Directorate General for the Information Society and Media and is usually hosted by the current Presidency of the European Union.

Authored by Joyce Lewis ECS

Edited for ORC by Sarah Noble