Ching-chih Chen appointed to Clinton's Advisory Committee.

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 24, 1997--Simmons College today announced the appointment of Dr. Ching-chih Chen, professor of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, to President Clinton's 20-member Advisory Committee on High-Performance Computing and Communications, Information Technology and the Next Generation Internet.

This Committee was established by a new Executive Order signed by the president on Feb. 11, 1997. It is charged to provide guidance and advice to the President's National Science and Technology Council's (NSTC) Committee on Computing, Information and Communications (CCIC) on all areas of high-performance computing, communications and information technologies, which focus primarily on interagency programs and broad issues of federal technology investment.

According to the White House, the Federal High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) Program continues to receive bipartisan Congressional support, as it has since the passage of the High Performance Computing Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-194). It is conducted by twelve Federal departments and agencies in cooperation with U.S. academia and industry. Under the leadership of the NSTC's CCIC, the HPCC Program is evolving. The CCIC's advanced information technologies R&D programs will focus on long-term interagency efforts that address critical national needs. "The results of these efforts will help Federal departments and agencies fulfill their missions, assure the long-term national security, better understand and manage the physical environment, improve health care, teach our children, train our workforce and sustain U.S. economic competitiveness," according to a White House news statement released Feb. 11, 1997.

Dr. John H. Gibbons, science advisor to the president, said, "HPCC R&D has been and must continue to be an innovation engine whose products are critical to U.S. leadership and global competitiveness. All the nominees are top-flight individuals with the technical expertise and experience needed to provide valuable guidance to the president, the National Science and Technology Council, the Office of Science and Technology Policy and the agencies involved in our investments in computing, information and communications."

Advisory members have been selected to represent a wide spectrum of interests in high performance computing, including specially qualified representatives of the research community, education and library communities, network providers, the advanced networking community, the computer security community, the entertainment sector, the health care sector, mass market computer manufacturers, the semiconductor industry, software developers, the supercomputer industry, supercomputer centers and the telecommunication industry, including satellite and wireless.

Chen, an author/editor of 25 books related to new information technology applications in libraries and information centers and a much-decorated information science and technology educator, is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She has received more than a dozen major awards, including the Library Information Technology Association's (LITA) Achievement in Library and Information Technology, LITA/Library Hi Tech Award, the Outstanding Information Science Teacher Award of the American Society for Information Science. On Feb. 13, 1997, she was also chosen as the first ALISE/Pratt-Severn National Faculty Award recipient by the Association for Library and Information Science Education (ALISE). -0- More information can be found at the web sites of :

White House -- http://www.whitehouse.gov The National Coordination Office for Computing, Information and Communications -- http://www.hpcc.gov

CONTACT: Simmons College

Patricia Maroni

617/521-2364