Heinz Lycklama

Dr. Heinz Lycklama

President, Open Systems Technology Associates

Professional Highlights

  • Dr. Lycklama received a Ph. D. degree in Physics from McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, in 1969.  Heinz published ten peer-reviewed technical papers in the field of Nuclear Physics in International Physics Journals while earning his doctorate.
  • The first nine years of his professional career were spent at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Murray Hill, New Jersey, where he did operating systems research and development on minicomputers. Many of his systems were based on the UNIX (UNIX is a registered trademark of X/Open) operating system developed at Bell Telephone Laboratories. These are documented in the original Bell System Technical Journal on the UNIX System, published in July 1978.
  • From 1978 to 1986, Heinz was Vice President of Systems Development for INTERACTIVE Systems Corporation, the first commercial company to offer supported UNIX systems. Here he developed the original UNIX-emulation system on the VAX/VMS system and managed various UNIX systems development projects (across distributed development centers). These include the PC/IX, VM/IX and “ AIX for the RT PC” projects. He was responsible for developing significant business opportunities in the Far East and in the U.S. government markets.
  • Heinz was elected Senior Vice President, Technology, of INTERACTIVE Systems in 1986. As a member of the INTERACTIVE senior management team, Heinz provided direction for the development of technologies that were strategic to the company’s lines of businesses, and served as the liaison with various industry bodies involved in the development of these technologies. He represented INTERACTIVE on the UNIX International Steering Committee, in OSF, and on the X/Open ISV Council. Heinz also planned and managed the annual Technical Reviews held for the technical staff.
  • Heinz has been a frequent speaker at UNIX/Open Systems conferences, e.g. UniForum, UNIX Expo, and has given seminars on open systems and industry/technology directions in Europe, in the Far East, as well as in North America.
  • In 1981, Heinz founded the UniForum Standards Committee to formulate an operating systems interface standard, based on the UNIX system, for a commercial operating system. The UniForum Standard was adopted by the membership in 1984, and published in December 1984. In 1985, Heinz served as Co-chair of the IEEE P1003 Committee, formed to promote the adoption of the portable operating system interface standard (POSIX) in the computer industry.
  • In 1985, Heinz founded the UniForum Technical Committee to address technical issues to promote the acceptance of UNIX-based systems in the computer industry. He served as Chairman of that group for five years.
  • In 1987, Heinz received the UniForum Annual Industry Award for his outstanding contributions to the standardization of the UNIX system. [Also received by Linus Torvalds and James Gosling in 1997.] He was also elected to a position on the UniForum Board of Directors in 1987, a position to which he was re-elected in 1989, 1991 and 1997.
  • In 1988, Heinz worked with a publisher to put together plans for a new UNIX technical newsletter, The UNIX Technology Advisor , for which he served as Chairman of the Editorial Board . This paid subscription newsletter was introduced in March of 1989, and ran for two years.
  • In 1992, Heinz formed Open Systems Technology Associates , a technology and management consulting firm specializing in Open Systems, Client/Server, and Internet/Intranet computing. The firm provides consulting services in technology, products, and standards areas such as the UNIX system, Windows NT, networking, distributed computing, network/systems management, and systems architecture. A description of some OSTA Projects can be found here. OSTA also provides Expert Witness Services for its clients.
  • In 1993, Heinz received a farewell UNIX standards award from AT&T at its End of an Era bash at UniForum. AT&T handed over the custody of the UNIX License to Novell Systems in 1993.
  • More details on Dr. Heinz Lycklama’s professional experience can be found here:
  • In 2013, Heinz founded the Apologetics Forum of Snohomish County to help equip believers in the defense of The Faith.

Contact Information:

Dr. Heinz Lycklama
Open Systems Technology Associates
17818 Oxford Dr.
Arlington, WA 98223

Phone: 425-501-5075
email: heinz@osta.com

URL: OSTA Home Page

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