Jim Waldo is a Distinguished Engineer with Sun Microsystems Laboratories, where he conducts research in large-scale distributed systems. Prior to (re)joining Sun Labs, Jim was the lead architect for Jini, a distributed programming system based on Java. He has also worked in the Java software product division and has done research in the areas of object-oriented programming and systems, general distributed computing, and user environments.

Before joining Sun, Jim spent eight years at Apollo Computer and Hewlett Packard. While at HP, he led the design and development of the first Object Request Broker, and was instrumental in getting that technology incorporated into the first OMG CORBA specification. He edited the book “The Evolution of C++: Language Design in the Marketplace of Ideas” (MIT Press), and was one of the authors of “The Jini Specification” (Addison Wesley), and participated in the National Academies’ study on networks of embedded computers that resulted in the book “Embedded Everywhere.”

Jim is an adjunct faculty member of Harvard University, where he teaches distributed computing in the department of computer science.

Jim received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Massachusetts (Amherst). He also holds M.A. degrees in both linguistics and philosophy from the University of Utah. He is a member of the IEEE and ACM.