The AMREN Project: Bringing Us Together While We Have to Stay Apart

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

By Ann Doyle, Internet2

It’s more important than ever for national research and education networks (NRENs) to connect. The CEOs of CANARIE, Internet2, and RedCLARA had a common goal to work closely together and to highlight the research and education enabled by our network infrastructure and shared expertise across the Americas. With that goal in mind, a team of staff from all three organizations committed to regular meetings to explore what we do, who we support, and how we can better share our NRENs’ efforts.

As a result, we are launching the first in a three-part series of events that are open to the community on June 10. Registration is open. This first event is hosted by RedCLARA.

Featured speakers:

Dr. Lukas Nellen
Institute of Nuclear Sciences
National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM)
Biography

Eduardo Toro Rivera
Information Technology Engineer at NSF’s NOIRLab under AURA Observatories in Chile
Biography

Luiz Nicolaci da Costa
General Director of the Interinstitutional Laboratory of e-Astronomy (LIneA)

The presentation will be followed by a “fireside chat” with our CEOs, Jim Ghadbane, CANARIE; Howard Pfeffer, Internet2; and Luis Eliécer Cadenas, RedCLARA.

Our RedCLARA colleagues have secured a team of interpreters and the presentation, while delivered in English, will be translated to Spanish, Portuguese, and French.

Lessons Learned, Friendships Made

We have so much to share from our collaboration this year. The team met weekly, notably sharing Ontario COVID shut-down updates, Michigan topping the U.S. cases and a weekly Thursday report from Santiago on whether the country would be on lockdown for the weekend. We learned a lot about each other, about our countries and NRENs, and, in addition to forming a new collaborative team, new friendships have been made across the Americas.

It was all made possible because of the collaboration and dedication of our staff team:

• Kathryn Anthonisen and Alex Bushell, CANARIE
• Ann Doyle and Ana Hunsinger, Internet2
• María José Lopez and Tania Altamirano, RedCLARA

Stay tuned for more information about the rest of the three-part series, which will likely be focused on medical research, climate change and other relevant topics.