Jon MacLaren graduated from York University with a BSc Hons in Mathematics and Computer Science in 1993. Following a brief stint in industry, he returned to academia in January 1996 to study for an MPhil in Computer Science at Manchester University. It is in Manchester that Jon's interest in High-Performance Computing began, as, during this time, he was attached to the CNC (Centre for Novel Computing), the research group headed up by Professor John Gurd. Jon stayed on with the group to study for his PhD, which investigated the privatisation of variables during the parallelisation of sequential Fortran 77 programs. He submitted his thesis on the 1st of May 2001 (awaiting Viva). Wishing to stay in an HPC-related area, Jon took a Research Assistant post at Manchester Computing, commencing in March 2001, employed on the EUROGRID project.