Terry Benton Bollinger (born February 6, 1955) is an American

computer scientist A computer scientist is a scientist who specializes in the academic study of computer science. Computer scientists typically work on the theoretical side of computation. Although computer scientists can also focus their work and research on ...

who works at the

MITRE Corporation The Mitre Corporation (stylized as The MITRE Corporation and MITRE) is an American not-for-profit organization with dual headquarters in Bedford, Massachusetts, and McLean, Virginia. It manages federally funded research and development centers ...

. In 2003 he wrote an influential report for the U.S. Department of Defense (U.S. DoD) in which he showed that

free and open source software Free and open-source software (FOSS) is software available under a Software license, license that grants users the right to use, modify, and distribute the software modified or not to everyone free of charge. FOSS is an inclusive umbrella term ...

(FOSS) had already become a vital part of the

United States Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and superv ...

software infrastructure, and that banning or restricting its use would have had serious detrimental impacts on DoD security, research capabilities, operational capabilities, and long-term cost efficiency. His report ended a debate about whether FOSS should be banned from U.S. DoD systems, and in time helped lead to the current official U.S. DoD policy of treating FOSS and

proprietary software Proprietary software is computer software, software that grants its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner a legal monopoly by modern copyright and intellectual property law to exclude the recipient from freely sharing t ...

as equals. The report is referenced on the DoD CIO web site and has been influential in promoting broader recognition of the importance of free and open source software in government circles. Bollinger is also known for his activity in the

IEEE Computer Society IEEE Computer Society (commonly known as the Computer Society or CS) is a technical society of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) dedicated to computing, namely the major areas of hardware, software, standards and people ...

, where he was an editor for

IEEE Software ''IEEE Software'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed magazine and scientific journal published by the IEEE Computer Society covering all aspects of software engineering, processes, and practices. Its mission is to be the best source of reliable, useful ...

for six years, wrote the founding charter for ''IEEE Security & Privacy Magazine'', and received an ''IEEE Third Millennium Medal'' for lifetime contributions to ''

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is an American 501(c)(3) organization, 501(c)(3) public charity professional organization for electrical engineering, electronics engineering, and other related disciplines. The IEEE ...

''. He has written about a wide range of software issues including effective development processes, cyber security, and distributed intelligence.

Life and work

Bollinger received Bachelor's and master's degrees in Computer Science at the

Missouri University of Science and Technology Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T or S&T) is a public research university in Rolla, Missouri. It is a member institution of the University of Missouri System. Most of its 6,456 students (2023) study engineering, busin ...

(S&T), from which he also received a Professional Degree in December 2009 for lifetime accomplishments. He has had a lifelong interest in multi-component (crowd) intelligence as an aspect of artificial intelligence, as well as a strong interest in the hard sciences, including the possible relevance of quantum theory to faster but fully classical, energy-efficient information processing in biological systems. His metaphors for understanding quantum entanglement and encryption have been quoted in the Russian technical press. From 2004 to 2010, Bollinger was the chief technology analyst for the U.S. DoD Defense Venture Catalyst Initiative (DeVenCI), an effort created by the Secretary of Defense after the

September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

. DeVenCI selects qualified applicants from leading

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

firms to contribute voluntary time and expertise to finding emerging commercial companies and technologies that could be relevant to DoD technology needs. Bollinger currently works full-time for the

Office of Naval Research The Office of Naval Research (ONR) is an organization within the United States Department of the Navy responsible for the science and technology programs of the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. Established by Congress in 1946, its mission is to plan ...

(ONR) research arm of the

Marine Corps Marines (or naval infantry) are military personnel generally trained to operate on both land and sea, with a particular focus on amphibious warfare. Historically, the main tasks undertaken by marines have included raiding ashore (often in supp ...

, where he helps assess and support research into the science of autonomy,

robotics Robotics is the interdisciplinary study and practice of the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. Within mechanical engineering, robotics is the design and construction of the physical structures of robots, while in computer s ...

, and

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...

Publications

* See DBLP Bibliography for Terry BollingerArticles by Terry Bollinger, in DBLP Bibliography Server
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bollinger, Terry 1955 births Living people Missouri University of Science and Technology alumni Senior members of the IEEE American computer scientists American artificial intelligence researchers American cognitive scientists Scientists from Missouri

Life and work

See also

Publications

References