An ISI Veteran has new missions on two USC campuses and a new title.
Jim Pepin is now chief technical officer of USC computing, as well as technical director of the new center for High Performance Computing and Communications.(HPPC)
Jim Pepin: Goal is more effective long-range USCIS planning on next-generation computing and communication technology
“Jim has two great assets,” said Michael Pearce, USCIS deputy chief information officer and executive director of Technical Services, who announced Pepin’s new position. “He has a tremendously strong knowledge of the technology, and tremendously deep love of the university and desire to see it improve.”
The HPCC, which operates a recently-installed 128-processor cluster computer, is a partnership between USC Information Services and the Information Sciences Institute. Pepin oversaw the installation of the new computer, which users – so far, all of them chemists – are already using for computation-intensive research.
At ISI, Pepin will continue to work on a number of high profile projects, including heading up the Los Angeles Access Point, a key ISI operated Internet utility that serves all major Southern California colleges and Universities (including Caltech and the UC and CSU systems).
Pepin’s general charge in his new job is to provide more effective long-range USCIS planning on next-generation computing and communication technology. “We need to see how we’re going to integrating tools, and to see what kind of infrastructure we’re going to need.”
Pepin started working full-time for USC in 1972 and implemented NCP and IP solutions on the ARPAnet, the predecessor to the Internet. He was a member of several Network Working Groups in the early 1970s.
He subsequently became director of the Engineering Computer Lab, USC’s most advanced facility at the time, and was architect of the central engineering school facilities, including networking and timesharing systems.
Starting in 1987 he was Executive Director of University Computing Services (UCS), responsible for campus wide support for all networking and central academic computing services. In 1999, he joined ISI as part of Division 7 and has been responsible for direction in High Performance Network infrastructure for the USC-ITS and ISI.
Published on March 12th, 2001
Last updated on August 10th, 2021
