The creator of eduroam is coming to Auckland

Across research, education and innovation, eduroam quietly keeps people connected wherever they go. 

Now its creator is coming to New Zealand. 

Klaas Wierenga, the creator of eduroam, will keynote APAN62 in Auckland this August, hosted by REANNZ. He built the global Wi-Fi roaming service in 2002, which now underpins research and education connectivity in more than 100 countries worldwide. His contribution earned him induction into the Internet Hall of Fame, alongside visionaries such as Tim Berners‑Lee. 

Today, as Chief Services Officer at GÉANT, Klaas works on the next generation of federated identity, trust and connectivity technologies that enable international research collaboration. 

At APAN62, Klaas will dig into one of the big emerging challenges facing our sector: how to better link high-performance computing centres globally as demand ramps up.  He will also speak about eduroam’s role as an enabler of student mobility, making it easier for students and researchers to move between institutions and stay seamlessly connected.  

For New Zealand’s research and innovation community, it’s a rare chance to hear directly from someone whose work underpins everyday research life. 

In the meantime, there’s a lot happening as APAN62 takes shape. Registration is now open, the Call for Proposals is live, Fellowship applications are being accepted, and there is also a Call for Papers open for the co-located APANConf event.   

With speakers, sessions and community contributions coming together, momentum is building quickly for August. Full details on all these opportunities, including key dates, submission information and ways to get involved are available on the APAN62 website.