Argonne researcher Ian Foster has been named one of the top three contributors to computer science, according to a recent article in Nature.

The ranking is based on the so-called h-index, introduced by physicist Jorge Hirsch in 2005 to rank the quality of a researcher's work. Foster is internationally renowned for his technical contributions and leadership in Grid computing, which was named "Most Promising New Technology" by R&D Magazine in 2002 and was cited by MIT Technology Review in 2003 as one of "Ten Technologies That Will Change the World."

He created the Distributed Systems Laboratory at Argonne, which has pioneered the Globus software now used worldwide in successful Grid applications such as the Open Science Grid and GriPhyN. A senior scientist in Argonne's Mathematics and Computer Science Division, Foster also is the Arthur Holly Compton Professor of computer science at the University of Chicago and director of the Argonne/University of Chicago Computation Institute.