A welcome to Raj Buyya as the new co‐editor

Abstract

Last year, one of the journal's two co-editors, Andy Wellings, announced that he wanted to step down by the end of 2014. That would complete an astounding 20 years of service as a co-editor. A search for Andy's replacement was successful, and his replacement is Dr. Rajkumar Buyya (or Raj for short). Raj is a professor of Computer Science at the University of Melbourne in Australia. Raj's term as co-editor commences on July 1, so that there is a transition period while Andy's work is progressively taken over by Raj. Andy will not be taking on responsibility for new submissions to the journal; they will go to Raj instead. Andy will continue to handle papers that were previously assigned to him and revisions of those papers until the end of the year. Raj's name should be well known to researchers and software practitioners in the fields of cloud computing and grid computing. At the University of Melbourne, Raj is the director of the Cloud Computing and Distributed Systems Laboratory. He is also serving as the founding CEO of Manjrasoft Pty Ltd., a spin-off company of the University, commercializing its innovations in Cloud Computing. He has a long list of accomplishments achieved during his career as a professor. These include several best paper awards, recognition awards from technical organizations, innovation awards, patents, major research grants, industrial collaborations, and a long list of publications in major journals and at major conferences. ‘A Scientometric Analysis of Cloud Computing Literature’ by German scientists reported that Raj is not only the world's most influential researcher but also the most productive one in the area of cloud computing. Originally from India, where he obtained Bachelor of Engineering and Master of Engineering degrees, Raj moved to Australia to study for his doctorate. He began his degree at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, but completed it at Monash University, in Melbourne, when he was forced to find a new supervisor. His thesis on grid computing was accepted in 2002 under the supervision of Professor David Abramson. Software technologies for Grid and Cloud computing developed under Raj's leadership have gained rapid acceptance and are in use at several academic institutions and commercial enterprises in 40 countries around the world. On a personal note, Raj reports that he is married to Dr. Smrithi Buyya and they have two lovely daughters. He says he is a member of International Society for Krishna Consciousness and that one day he hopes to become a master of ‘spiritual science’! Software: Practice and Experience is fortunate that Raj has agreed to take on the role as co-editor. He has been helpful to the journal in the past, helping it achieve a more prominent position in rankings maintained by the Australian Research Council, by refereeing papers, by submitting papers, and by being a guest editor of a special issue on cloud computing. As the co-editor who will work alongside Raj, I extend a very special welcome to Raj. I am anticipating that there will be many new initiatives and a new focus for the journal, which will help it maintain its place as a leading journal, relevant to software practitioners and researchers around the world.