The CIO of CERN on rumors and power
By Michael W. Jones
The CIO of CERN, Wolfgang von Rueden, enjoys an enviable position in the world of technology. He is not only a major influence in areas such as nuclear research, but he gets to play with the biggest toy in the world: the Large Hadron Collider near Geneva, Switzerland. It is difficult to imagine a technology job with better perks.
Von Rueden and his department are responsible for the computing infrastructure that supports the Large Hadron Collider, which is looking for the enigmatic Higgs Boson and so-called “dark matter,” work which involves engineering and monitoring the collision of atomic particles at almost the speed of light. Von Rueden has been at Cern since 1975, and has been CIO since 2003, plenty of time to have been involved in major issues in bleeding-edge technology.
Silicon.com was lucky enough to interview the CERN CIO recently, resulting in a few memorable quotes. When asked about some of his largest problems, he cited the difficulty in getting enough electrical power to support his operations, saying that CERN will exhaust their current power supplies within two years. He also commented on the challenges of power usage and ecology, saying “That is the same problem at all of our grid centers around the world – they all have got to look at how they can cut power usage by looking at new technologies, green IT and so on. It’s doable – it’s just a case of funding.”
Von Rueden also talked about the silliest rumors he has heard about CERN. On the subject of CERN’s grid replacing the entire internet, he said, “It was nonsense; it was just not true. We use standard products. We are not revolutionizing technology. This was completely untrue.”
On the recent stories that the Large Hadron Collider could create black holes and destroy the Earth, he said, “I am not that happy about the way that some journalists pick up something that is utter nonsense and you can guarantee a few hours later that it will be copied by other journalists. I have just stopped reading the reports altogether.”
There is a chance that von Rueden has the most interesting CIO position on our planet. Where most CIOs are concerned about budgets, staying ahead of the technology curve and corporate technological innovation, von Rueden has those responsibilities and is also able to deny rumors that his department is going to destroy the world.
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