Biographical sketch of author

Gunter Dueck   IBM Germany, Vangerowstrasse 18, D-69115 Heidelberg, Germany (electronic mail: dueck@de.ibm.com). Prior to joining IBM in 1987, Dr. Dueck taught mathematics at the University of Bielefeld, Germany. For several years he did research in optimization at the IBM Heidelberg Scientific Center, and later he managed a newly formed business unit in this field. He founded the Business Intelligence Services (data warehousing, data mining) for IBM Central Europe. Currently, he is working on strategy and cultural change at IBM Global Services. His theory of identification, coinvented with R. Ahlswede, won the 1990 IEEE Prize Paper Award of the IEEE Information Theory Society. Dr. Dueck is an IEEE Fellow, an IBM Distinguished Engineer, and a member of the IBM Academy of Technology. Over the past two years he published three satirical-philosophical books, including Wild Duck.