ACTIVITIES
Industrial and Engineering
Since October 1991: Senior expert at Bel V (formerly AV Nuclear), the technical support
subsidiary of the Belgian Federal Agency for Nuclear Safety (http://www.belv.be/). In charge of technical assessments and evaluations
required for the regulatory licensing of computer-based systems and software
important to safety in nuclear power reactors and other nuclear
installations. Involved in related R&D, standards, and international
nuclear safety organisations’ activities. Academic
Emeritus Professor of the Computer Science Department
of Louvain-la-Neuve University; taught (1972 –
2002) on computer networks, distributed and fault-tolerant computer systems,
and parallel programming. Teaching and research positions held at
Carnegie-Mellon University (1971-1972), Brussels University (chargé de cours 1971-1981), Pisa University (1980, 1982), and, as a
"Lansdowne 1984 Lecturer" at Victoria University, British Columbia. Supervisor of master and PhD theses (two of which
were granted the Belgian FNRS-IBM prize, H. Vantilborgh
(1982) and P. Semal (1993)). Member, from 1984 to 1987, of the international
jury of the Philips European Contest for Young Scientists and Inventors. Research
Research interests have been in the area of
distributed computer and communication systems engineering, and include
performance and reliability models applied to these systems. Early work,
started in the early seventies at Carnegie-Mellon University with D.L. Parnas and Pr. H.A. Simon, Nobel Laureate, addressed
methods for organising and structuring complex systems of cooperating
parallel processes[12] [13]. This work was later oriented to performance
models and led, at Philips in the seventies and eighties, to a now well used
numerical decomposition method for large stiff Markovian
models [e.g. 25, 39]. Also worked on optimisation methods for data
communication networks [33], on routing and flow control algorithms [32], on
random access protocols for satellite and mobile radio networks [51, 53], and
from 1988, on admission and load control for ATM networks [68, 74]. More
recently, with E.G. Coffman and E.N. Gilbert (AT&T Laboratories, Associate member in the ESPRIT Basic
Research Action BRA 3092 on Predictably Dependable Computing Systems (PDCS)
since 1991 [75, 82], and, from 1995, in the “Design for Validation (DEVA)”
ESPRIT Long Term Research Project 20072. Also representative member of Member of the European RACE Definition
Phase project 2037 on Methods for Piecewise Development and Construction of
Telecommunication Systems [50], and in the RACE initiating project 1022 on
Asynchronous Time Division Techniques (ATM) [69]. Also expert for the
European RACE training programme on Telecommunications (BRAIN), and in
COST and DRIVE projects of the CEC. Leader of the work package on safety
justification of the European Framework 5 research project CEMSIS
: Cost Effective Modernisation of Systems Important to Safety, (http://www.cemsis.org/), 2000-2004. Editor of the PERFORMANCE EVALUATION Journal,
from creation in 1970 to 1997, and earlier of the of
the SIAM Journal on Matrix Analysis. International Activities and Mandates
Advisor to the Finnish Nuclear Safety Authority (http://www.stuk.fi/) for the licensing of the
software of the new EPR Finnish reactor and for other digital control and
instrumentation upgrade projects. In charge of expert missions for safety critical
software used in nuclear applications for the International Atomic Energy
Agency (IAEA-UNO), Expert for various EC PHARE and TACIS
projects (transfer of methodology and support to nuclear safety authorities)
and for the CEC DG XI TSO study on safety of European projects for
large evolutionary Pressurized Water nuclear reactors and on the development
of a common safety approach in EC countries. Chairman of the CEC NRWG Task Force of nuclear
licensors on safety critical software (http://europa.eu.int/comm/energy/nuclear/nuclearsafety.htm).
Member of the OCDE task force on nuclear
safety critical software used in nuclear reactors [86]. Member of the United Kingdom Advisory
Committee on Nuclear Safety for safety critical computer based systems
since 1995. Reviewer for the CEC DG XIII and DG III
in several European Research projects in information and communications
technologies. Evaluator for the RACE programme in 1991 and 1993 Founding member of the IFIP Working Group
WG 7.3 on Computer System Performance and Reliability Evaluation. Member of the Education
Degree in Electrical Engineering (1961),
Certificate in nuclear sciences (1961), and "Doctorat
en Sciences Appliquées" (1973), from the
"Université Catholique
de Louvain",
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