Two Computing Leaders Die in 2011: Both Had Effects on Laboratory Informatics
Written by Gloria Metrick on . Published as written. It may not reflect how these systems work today.
Both Ken Olsen and Steve Jobs had significant effects on our laboratory informatics community.
Steve Jobs
Anyone who isn’t currently in a coma probably now knows Steve Jobs passed-away, yesterday:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Jobs
Many of us might have joked about the “iPad as a sample tray” (see multiple articles in places like TheIntegratedLab.com at http://theintegratedlab.com/) and for those labs that do currently have tablet solutions, many aren’t even iPads, after all. Yet, it was probably Steve Jobs’ iPad solutions that led us to
realize and to dream of those solutions, in the first place. We could argue about what was first, what was first and practical, and the like. But it really was Steve Jobs’ news releases that got us believing we could do this.
Ken Olsen
Ken Olsen, co-founder of DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation), passed-away in February of this year:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Olsen
For those who don’t remember, the DEC computers finally allowed the scientific community more affordable and more easily accessible computing solutions with the PDP and the VAX computers. In fact, it was just a
few weeks ago that I attended an IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) meeting here in the Cleveland area, where the engineer talking about his early days integrating scientific instruments was almost entirely possible due to his lab’s acquisition of early PDP computers, and his story is a common one.
Tomorrow in our Laboratory Informatics Applications
Now, we’re in our tomorrow. What will our future in laboratory informatics be like without some of these pioneers? While we have many companies making their mark in applications and computing solutions, there
currently isn’t a single pioneer showing us the way. Hopefully, we’ll get some breakout leaders with the next wave of direction for us or maybe those of us who currently exist in this industry will be the leaders in one way or another. Only time will tell.
Gloria Metrick
GeoMetrick Enterprises
http://www.GeoMetrick.com/