World's Best Scientists 2026 revealed!
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Computer Science
USA
2026

D-Index & Metrics

Computer Science

D-Index
143
Citations
138852
World Ranking
49
National Ranking
28

Research.com Recognitions

  • 2026 - Research.com Computer Science in United States Leader Award
  • 2025 - Research.com Computer Science in United States Leader Award
  • 2023 - Research.com Computer Science in United States Leader Award
  • 2022 - Research.com Computer Science in United States Leader Award
  • 2020 - IEEE Fellow For contributions to grid computing and data transport infrastructures
  • 2009 - ACM Fellow For work in parallel programming languages, collaborative and distributed computing.
  • 2003 - Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Overview

Ian Foster is affiliated with the University of Chicago in the United States. Their scholarly contributions primarily focus on the field of Computer Science, with significant work in related subfields including Computer Networks and Communications, Information Systems and Management, Materials Chemistry, Artificial Intelligence, and Information Systems.

Their research topics cover a range of areas including:

  • Scientific Computing and Data Management
  • Distributed and Parallel Computing Systems
  • Machine Learning in Materials Science
  • Advanced Data Storage Technologies
  • Research Data Management Practices
  • Computational Drug Discovery Methods
  • Cloud Computing and Resource Management

Key recent publications by Ian Foster include:

  • "Climate impacts on global agriculture emerge earlier in new generation of climate and crop models," 2021, Nature Food
  • "Autonomous experimentation systems for materials development: A community perspective," 2021, Matter
  • "14 examples of how LLMs can transform materials science and chemistry: a reflection on a large language model hackathon," 2023, Digital Discovery
  • "A regional nuclear conflict would compromise global food security," 2020, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
  • "TomoGAN: low-dose synchrotron x-ray tomography with generative adversarial networks: discussion," 2020, Journal of the Optical Society of America A

Ian Foster has collaborated frequently with several researchers, including Kyle Chard, Ben Blaiszik, Ryan Chard, Logan Ward, and Zhengchun Liu.

They have contributed extensively to academic venues such as:

  • arXiv (Cornell University)
  • The International Journal of High Performance Computing Applications
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
  • IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems
  • Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)

Ian Foster has also authored books published by World Scientific, including multiple editions of the "Handbook on Big Data and Machine Learning in the Physical Sciences," published in 2020.

Among their recognitions are the IEEE Fellow award received in 2020 for contributions to grid computing and data transport infrastructures, the ACM Fellow award awarded in 2009 for work in parallel programming languages, collaborative and distributed computing, and fellowship of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) awarded in 2003.

Best Publications

  • The Anatomy of the Grid: Enabling Scalable Virtual Organizations

    Ian Foster;Carl Kesselman;Steven Tuecke

  • The Grid 2: Blueprint for a New Computing Infrastructure

    Ian Foster;Carl Kesselman

  • Globus: a Metacomputing Infrastructure Toolkit

    Ian Foster;Carl Kesselman

  • The Physiology of the Grid

    Ian Foster;Ian Foster;Carl Kesselman;Jeffrey M. Nick;Steven Tuecke

  • The Physiology of the Grid An Open Grid Services Architecture for Distributed Systems Integration

    Ian Foster;Carl Kesselman;Jeffrey M. Nick;Steven Tuecke

  • Cloud Computing and Grid Computing 360-Degree Compared

    I. Foster;Yong Zhao;I. Raicu;S. Lu

  • XSEDE: Accelerating Scientific Discovery

    John Towns;Timothy Cockerill;Maytal Dahan;Ian T. Foster

  • Designing and Building Parallel Programs: Concepts and Tools for Parallel Software Engineering

    Ian Foster

  • Grid information services for distributed resource sharing

    K. Czajkowski;S. Fitzgerald;I. Foster;C. Kesselman

  • Grid services for distributed system integration

    I. Foster;C. Kesselman;J.M. Nick;S. Tuecke

  • A security architecture for computational grids

    Ian Foster;Carl Kesselman;Gene Tsudik;Steven Tuecke

  • Condor-G: A Computation Management Agent for Multi-Institutional Grids

    James Frey;Todd Tannenbaum;Miron Livny;Ian Foster

  • Condor-G: a computation management agent for multi-institutional grids

    J. Frey;T. Tannenbaum;M. Livny;I. Foster

  • Globus toolkit version 4: software for service-oriented systems

    Ian Foster

  • The data grid

    Ann Chervenak;Ian Foster;Carl Kesselman;Charles Salisbury

  • Virtual Infrastructure Management in Private and Hybrid Clouds

    B. Sotomayor;R.S. Montero;I.M. Llorente;I. Foster

  • A Resource Management Architecture for Metacomputing Systems

    Karl Czajkowski;Ian T. Foster;Nicholas T. Karonis;Carl Kesselman

  • Mapping the Gnutella network

    R. Matei;A. Iamnitchi;P. Foster

  • Mapping the Gnutella Network: Properties of Large-Scale Peer-to-Peer Systems and Implications for System Design

    Matei Ripeanu;Ian T. Foster;Adriana Iamnitchi

  • The Globus project: a status report

    I. Foster;C. Kesselman

  • An Open Source Solution for Virtual Infrastructure Management in Private and Hybrid Clouds

    Borja Sotomayor;S. Montero;Ignacio M. Llorente;Ian Foster

Frequent Co-Authors

Carl Kesselman
Carl Kesselman University of Southern California
Steven Tuecke
Steven Tuecke University of Chicago
Kyle Chard
Kyle Chard University of Chicago
Michael Wilde
Michael Wilde Argonne National Laboratory
Ioan Raicu
Ioan Raicu Illinois Institute of Technology
Matei Ripeanu
Matei Ripeanu University of British Columbia
Ann Chervenak
Ann Chervenak The Aerospace Corporation
Adriana Iamnitchi
Adriana Iamnitchi Maastricht University
Daniel S. Katz
Daniel S. Katz University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Nageswara S. V. Rao
Nageswara S. V. Rao Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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