IU’s Suresh Marru invited to join Apache Software Foundation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 13, 2012
BLOOMINGTON, Ind.— The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) recently asked Suresh Marru of the Indiana University Pervasive Technology Institute (PTI) to join its exclusive membership. This honor is bestowed on IT developers whose skills have significantly contributed to the foundation's projects.
ASF is a community of developers focused on creating open, collaborative software. The foundation values open governance, meritocracy, and consensus-building principles. With "community over code" as their guiding philosophy, the all-volunteer group oversees nearly 150 open source projects (such as the Apache HTTP server) that benefit millions of users around the world.
"This invitation recognizes Suresh's distinction as a computer scientist, the value of the programming work he has done over many years, and his insight as a leader in the open source community," said Craig Stewart, PTI executive director. "Suresh reflects IU's and Pervasive Technology Institute's values of technical excellence and service, and he well deserves this honor."
ASF membership is granted only to a limited number of volunteers who have demonstrated broad interest in ASF projects. Marru, the principal research software architect in PTI's science gateways group, is an expert in the development of open-source software and science gateways - in other words, web-based environments for accessing and managing scientific applications and data sets. To that end, Marru works on IU's Open Grid Computing Environment project and also leads the science gateway program for Extreme Science and Engineering Discover Environment (XSEDE).
"Suresh really gets the Apache way," said ASF member Chris Mattman, a senior computer scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the person who nominated Marru for the ASF honor. "It's been my pleasure to watch Suresh grow into this role and to see him become a member of the Apache Software Foundation."
Marru brings considerable knowledge to ASF. Since 2011, he has helped to develop Apache's Airavata and Rave software, both of which are used in the development of science gateways. In addition, Marru coordinated ASF participation in Google's Summer of Code program, which offers students stipends to write code for open-source projects.
Marru is eager to be part of the Apache Software Foundation. "It's a great honor," he said. "I look forward to serving the ASF at large, by incubating scientific software projects."
