News Release

Calit2 Director and Jacobs School Professor Appointed to New Broadband Task Force by Governor Schwarzenegger

Calit2 director Larry Smarr

San Diego, CA, November 30, 2006 -- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the appointment of Larry Smarr, a professor at UCSD's Jacobs School of Engineering and director of the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), to a newly-created, 21-member Broadband Task Force.

The bipartisan Broadband Task Force brings together public and private stakeholders to remove barriers to broadband access, identify opportunities for increased broadband adoption and enable the creation and deployment of new advanced communication technologies.  In October, the Governor signed an Executive Order to clear the government red tape for expanding broadband networks and to create the Broadband Task Force, which was expanded to 21 members earlier this month.

"California is number one in so many different things, whether it is biotechnology, stem cell research, protecting our environment, creating jobs or our university system. The Golden State must remain competitive in the telecommunication revolution so that we can continue to attract the best, the brightest and the most creative workforce in the world," said Gov. Schwarzenegger. "Broadband will help build California so we can grow our economy, create great jobs and stay ahead in the global marketplace."

Calit2's Smarr, 58, has served as director of Calit2 and a professor of computer science and engineering in the Jacobs School of Engineering since 2000, after 15 years as director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

Smarr is one of five San Diego-based members appointed to the task force. The others are: Cox Cable general manager William Geppert; Paul Hernandez, director of community development for the Metropolitan Area Advisory Committee Project; California State Senator Christine Kehoe; and Peter Pardee, vice president of business development at Hughes Network Systems and a member of the board of directors of CommNexus San Diego.

Another Calit2 participant was also named to the panel: Debra Richardson, 52, is the Ted and Janice Smith Family Foundation Dean of the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences at UC Irvine (UCSD's partner in Calit2). 

Fourteen other nominees to the Broadband Task Force included: Ellis Berns, Rachelle Chong, Charles Giancarlo, William Huber, Wendy Lazarus, Lloyd Levine, Michael Liang, Bryan Martin, Timothy McCallion, Sunne Wright McPeak, Milo Medin, Peter Pennekamp, Rollin Richmond, Emy Tseng and Jonathan Taplin. Taplin is a participant in Calit2's CineGrid project, and has served as an adjunct professor at the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Southern California. He is also chairman and chief executive officer of Intertainer Inc., and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

For biographies of all 21 members appointed to the Broadband Task Force today, go to Governor Schwarzenegger's news release.  

Media Contacts

Doug Ramsey
Jacobs School of Engineering
858-822-5825
dramsey@ucsd.edu