After nearly 20 years with NORDUnet, Josva Kleist is leaving the organisation. With his departure, we would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to him for his many and lasting contributions to NORDUnet, to the Nordic and European NRENs, and to European research and education infrastructure more broadly – and for being a valued colleague and leader throughout these years.
Josva joined NORDUnet at a pivotal time, contributing to the establishment and operation of the Nordic Tier-1 for the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG), supporting the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. He was a key driver in architecting and building the distributed Nordic Tier-1 and in the creation of the Nordic Data Grid Facility that came to operate it. Beyond the Nordic collaboration, Josva also made significant contributions to LHC computing infrastructure internationally, including many years of service on the WLCG scrutiny board.
As software became an increasingly critical component of network engineering and operations, Josva took on the role of Head of Software Development at NORDUnet, building up what is today the Software and Service, Orchestration, and Engineering team. Alongside this, he played a central role in shaping the NORDUnet Conference, coordinating programme development, working closely with programme committees and speakers, and helping define the format of the conference over many years.
Josva has also been deeply engaged in Nordic and European infrastructure coordination and policy development. Through his involvement in Nordic e-Infrastructure planning and organisational structures, he established strong interfaces with the European Commission and national agencies, served as a Danish delegate to e-IRG, and represented NORDUnet in several policy-shaping fora, most recently related to EuroHPC and GÉANT hyperconnectivity. He has been a frequent and valued contributor to European projects, from GN5 to SUBMERSE, and instrumental in shaping NORDUnet’s role in a wide range of European collaborations. In recent years, Josva headed the Strategic Engagement team and was a member of the NORDUnet leadership team, and had the role of Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), leading the NORDUnet implementation of ISO27001.
We are grateful for Josva’s dedication, insight, and collegiality within these two decades of collaboration. We wish him all the very best in his next challenges and endeavours.
