Robert (Dr. Bob) Sullivan

Data Center infrastructure Specialist

Dr. Sullivan, commonly known as "Dr Bob" in the industry, retired in 2000 after a 32 year carrier with IBM's Storage Systems Division in San Jose, CA. Since then he has been an independent consultant in the Data Processing industry, concentration on high density cooling and energy efficient data center infrastructures. Prior to joining IBM, Bob received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University and an MS and PhD in Applied Mechanics from Stanford University. In his 32 year carrier at IBM he did technology, component and new product development work, installation planning and consulting work in computer room environment and hardware installation issues. In his IBM career he worked on the team that developed the Winchester disk technology, he created the Hot Aisle/Cold Aisle equipment layout concept, plus identified the need to have all air flowing in one direction in the computer room. These are critical concepts that are now generally accepted and employed throughout the data processing industry today.

Dr. Bob is a recognized expert in the areas of computer room environments, hardware installation, computer room layout, power and power distribution, grounding, cooling and air flow plus contamination identification and remediation. Dr. Bob has authored numerous papers and presented seminars on cooling high density heat loads, efficient cooling methods and best practices in operating effective and efficient data centers. For the past three years Dr. Bob has worked with the team developing the KyotoCooling process in data collection and process documentation. He has also made numerous presentations at conferences and seminars educating data center operators around the world of it's the cooling techniques existence, theory of operation, advantages, and efficiencies.