Science Foundation Ireland's new director of computer research wants the world to pay more attention to Irish researchers, writes Dick Ahlstrom
Dr Alastair Glass wants to teach Irish scientists how to be show-offs. He hopes to make the world take notice of the high-quality research taking place here.
"It is not enough to do good science; people have to know you are doing good science," says Glass, the newly appointed director of information and communications technology (ICT) research at Science Foundation Ireland.
The size of the research base doesn't matter when it comes to quality work, he says. "I want the rest of the world to understand what is going on in Ireland. Size is not the issue. What we have to do is make sure we do the right things and get them noticed."
Appointed last month, he started work almost immediately. He is about to embark on a grand tour of Irish universities and other institutes to talk to research academics and meet the "movers and shakers" of computer science, materials research and systems development.
"Goal number one is to fully engage the universities and institutes," he says. "Whatever we do, it has to be intellectually owned by the universities. We have to build on the strengths that are already here."
He takes the broadest view possible of research, and this will be reflected in the types of projects funded by the foundation with the €635 million available under the Technology Foresight Fund.
"Creativity and scientific excellence span the whole gamut from basic research to applications," he says. "Science and engineering are all a continuum, and to separate them is a mistake."
Glass has a wealth of experience in the industry, as a basic researcher and also as a manager of research. Born in Yorkshire, he took degrees at the University of London and University of British Columbia. He worked for a time at King's College London before moving to the US to join Bell Labs.
"I spent something like 33 years at Bell Labs. For most of that time I was doing my personal research programme or managing research."
He became vice president of photonics at Lucent Technologies, a Bell subsidiary, in New Jersey, involved in research on fibre optics, optoelectronics and optical systems.
Within three months of his retirement from Bell, an Irish contact in Germany told him about the new post in Dublin. "It sounded like too exciting an opportunity to miss," he says. "It sounded like such an important thing for Ireland to do, this investment. I decided this was a job I could do and a great opportunity to make a change here."
A key task while at Bell and Lucent was to convert basic research findings into commercial opportunities, and he believes this will stand to him in his work for the foundation. "Researchers get excited when people want to use the results of their work," he says. It is also "the shortest way to get value out of your research".
He is already aware of disquiet expressed by some computer scientists here because software research was not included in the first round of foundation funding, last year. This is not policy, he points out, and software development will be supported.
"I think computer science and software are a critical part of the networks of the future," he says. "My feeling is, we are going to fund projects across the entire spectrum of information technology."
It will be important to link with existing state agencies to maximise the impact that any investment in research can make, he believes. He includes in his get-to-know list the IDA, Enterprise Ireland, the Higher Education Authority and the Combined Heads of Universities of Ireland, which represents university presidents.
He defines a number of changes that will indicate whether the foundation's investment is having an impact. First among them is an increase in the supply of science and engineering graduates and a jump in the numbers of both patents and publications arising from the research.
He will also watch for greater involvement in international conferences to present research findings, a rise in the number of successful company start-ups related to research and increased inward industrial investment as foreign companies seek to exploit access to researchers and third-level laboratories.
"I don't think I am too optimistic," he says. He has seen institutions change "dramatically" when quality people and funding join to make things happen in research.goes