OIL & GAS

Microsoft announced that Tony Hey is joining the company as a corporate vice president to coordinate the Technical Computing Initiative (TCI). Hey comes to Microsoft as one of the pre-eminent researchers in the field of parallel computing, most recently as director of the United Kingdom's ambitious e-Science Initiative. Hey will report directly to Craig Mundie, chief technical officer and senior vice president for Advanced Strategies and Policy, and work across the company to coordinate Microsoft's efforts to collaborate with the scientific community worldwide. "We are excited to have a person of Tony's stature within the global computational science community joining the company," Mundie said. "Tony's experience in applying computing technologies to scientific research will help Microsoft collaborate effectively with researchers worldwide in a variety of fields of engineering and science." Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research, said, "Microsoft Research has expanded its collaborations over the past few years to the broader scientific community through direct researcher-to-researcher collaborations and through other programs. Hey's appointment will extend these relationships more broadly into the scientific community and enable broader engagement with Microsoft research and development programs." As head of the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, Hey helped build the department into one of the pre-eminent computer science research institutions in England. Since 2001, Hey has served as director of the U.K.'s e-Science Initiative, managing the government's efforts to provide scientists and researchers with access to key computing technologies. "Today computation plays a critical role in advancing research across almost every field of science, yet far too often scientists must build all their own programming infrastructures and research their own algorithms to help advance their research efforts," Hey said. "By collaborating with the scientific community, I am confident that some of Microsoft's advanced technologies can be used to accelerate their rate of discovery." Hey is also a fellow with the Royal Academy of Engineering, a member of the European Union's Information Society Technology Advisory Group, and has been a member of several national committees in the United Kingdom, including committees for the U.K. Department of Trade and Industry and Office of Science and Technology. In addition, Hey has advised a number of countries, including China, Ireland, France and Switzerland, to help these nations advance their scientific agenda and become more competitive in the global technology economy. Hey received a Commander of the Order of the British Empire honor for services to science in the 2005 U.K. New Year's Honours List. Hey is a graduate of Oxford University with an undergraduate degree in physics and a doctorate in theoretical physics. Hey will officially join Microsoft on June 27, 2005.