National Laboratory Enhances Research Network Connections

"The University of Washington is pleased that PNNL will have via the PNWGP a robust, direct connection to support our several major collaborative initiatives," said Scott Mah, Director of Communication Technologies. "Specifically, this connection will be a critical tool used by the UW-PNNL Joint Nanotechnology Institute and the Joint Program in Cell Signaling. The faster and more reliably the researchers can pass their data back and forth, the more quickly research results will be reached and communicated."

"Now, more than ever, high performance network connections are essential tools to the success in our research," says Ray Bair, associate director of Computational Sciences and Mathematics at PNNL. "By allowing information to be transferred more quickly, we believe that the resources available to us through our OC-3 connection to the Pacific Northwest Gigapop will enable PNNL staff to work more closely with our collaborators and provide them with better access to computing and data resources at the lab."

"The Cell Systems Initiative (CSI) of the University of Washington and PNNL have signed an agreement to create a joint program in Cell Signaling. This joint program focuses on providing high bandwidth, online collaboration tools and resources to cell biology researchers nationwide and, by extension, worldwide. The PNNL connection to the Pacific Northwest Gigapop is crucial to the success of this joint program," according to Joseph Duncan, Chief Operations and IT Officer at UW's CSI.

The OC-3 connection also completes a higher speed connection from PNNL to ESnet, the Department of Energy's (DOE) Energy Science Network (ESnet), which has a presence in the Pacific Northwest Gigapop.

"This will be of great value to PNNL's leading edge research for DOE, including the agency's Scientific Discovery through Advanced Computing program, the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory and our global climate change research," according to Bair.

About Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is a DOE research facility that delivers breakthrough science and technology in the areas of environment, energy, health, fundamental sciences and national security. Battelle, based in Columbus, Ohio, has operated the laboratory for DOE since 1965. The William R. Wiley Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, located on the PNNL campus in Richland, opened in 1997 and provides the national scientific community access to its advanced research equipment.

About Pacific Northwest Gigapop (PNWGP)
Pacific Northwest Gigapop is the Northwest's Next Generation Internet, Internet2/Abilene applications cooperative, testbed, and point of presence. PNWGP connects together high-performance international and federal research networks with universities, research organizations, and leading-edge R&D and new-media enterprises throughout Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Canada, and now Australia.

About the University of Washington
The University of Washington is one of the world's top research universities. Perennially among the top three American institutions in peer-reviewed research activities and related competitive contracts and grants, and with numerous top-ranked programs, the UW is a university which truly embodies the ideals of "Learning @ the Leading Edge" T. (For more information see www.washington.edu.)

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Media inquiries: Staci Maloof
PNNL media relations
509-372-6313
staci.maloof@pnl.gov

Business inquiries: John McCoy, Program Manager
Information Sciences & Engineering
902 Battelle Boulevard
P.O. Box 999
Richland, WA 99352
Tel: 509-372-6156
Email: john.mccoy@pnl.gov
Web: www.pnl.gov

Pacific Northwest Gigapop
Jan Eveleth, Manager
4545 15th Ave. NE
Seattle, WA 98105
Tel: 206-934-5588
Email: info@pnw-gigapop.net
Web: www.pnw-gigapop.net