Chris Vick Distinguished Engineer
Portmeirion Project
Sun Microsystems Laboratories
16 Network Circle umpk16-162 Menlo Park, CA 94025
Chris Vick is a researcher for Sun Microsystems Laboratories, and is working on project Portmeirion.
Prior to this position, he worked on:
* The System Software Research Group, as PI, which was working on developing virtualization technologies to enable horizontal scaling through improvements in availability, ease of programming, and ease of administration.
* The DARPA HPCS Phase II Project
* The HotSpot Java Virtual Machine
In 1984, Chris was awarded an BA from Rice University, but also received a JD (Juris Doctor) from Columbia University, where he was awarded the Whitney North Seymour Medal for Excellence in Trial Practice. Chris practiced General Business Law from 84-88, until his love for computing took over his career path through a consultancy job he landed that lasted 2 years with PCSI, Inc., a custom database vendor.
He returned to Rice University in 1990 as a Graduate Researcher in Compiler Technology, receiving an MS in Computer Science in 1994 (thesis topic: SSA Based Operator Strength Reduction) until Texas Instruments offered him a Systems Software Engineering position. After a 4 year stint at Texas Instruments, Inc., working on development tools and DSP architecture, Sun recruited him to join the HotSpot team to develop the optimizing compiler for the HotSpot JVM in 1997. He has been at Sun ever since.
His research interests include Algorithms, Compilation, Computer System Analysis & Design, Distributed Systems, Failure Analysis/Physics of Failure, Fault tolerance/fault recovery, High Performance Computing, Java, JVM, Operating Systems, Proactive fault monitoring, software reliability, Programming Languages, Scalable multitasking virtual machine design, Software and Supercomputer design
Education:
* MS Computer Science - Compiler Technology 1994, Rice University
* JD 1984, Columbia University School of Law
* BA History, Political Science, 1984, Rice University
