CSC News
RENCI's Reed Named to Presidential Council of Advisors
Daniel A. Reed, director of the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI), Chancellor's Eminent Professor and Vice-Chancellor for Information Technology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and an adjunct professor for the NC State department of computer science, will be appointed to the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) the White House announced this week.
Founded in 2004, RENCI is a major collaborative venture of the state of North Carolina, Duke University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and NC State University, including resources within the NCSU department of computer science.
Under Reed's leadership, RENCI combines the strengths of state initiatives and three world-class universities with the social, business and research opportunities of the Research Triangle and the state of North Carolina. From developing the cyberinfrastructure that will enable better planning for and response to disasters, to leading North Carolina into a new era of genetics research, RENCI strives for inclusiveness and the pollination of ideas across disciplines and across the domains of academia, government and business.
The "renaissance" in RENCI evokes both its collaborative atmosphere and the breadth of its intellectual activities. By matching researchers, educators and business people with interdisciplinary technology leaders and the world's best computing resources, network connectivity, data analysis and visualization tools, RENCI ignites the innovation needed to solve previously intractable problems, spur economic growth, and build the next generation of marvels that will transform society.
Reed had been a member of the President's Information Technology Committee (PITAC), a group whose federal charter expired last June. In October, President Bush announced that the functions of PITAC-to advise the president on IT research and development-would be folded into PCAST and that PCAST membership would be expanded to take on the broader role.
PCAST advises the president on technology, scientific research priorities, and math and science education. Its members are national leaders in business, research and education, including Dell founder Michael Dell, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, and MIT President Emeritus Charles Vest. Reed was one of 14 appointees announced Monday. Others include F. Duane Ackerman, chairman and CEO of Bell South; Paul M. Anderson, CEO of Duke Energy; Hector de Jesus Ruiz, CEO of AMD; Robert E. Witt, president of the University of Alabama; and Tadataka Yamada, chairman of research and development for GlaxoSmithKline and executive director of the Global Health Program for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
"The expansion of PCAST shows the federal government recognizes that IT is a pervasive element in science and education and that a holistic approach to these issues is necessary," said Reed. "I am honored to be named to this prestigious council and I look at is as a chance to help our country realize its boldest dreams."
Reed served as a member of PITAC and as chair of its computational science subcommittee for two years. He is the current chair of the Board of Directors of the Computing Research Association, a member of the National Archives and Records Administration advisory committee, a member of the Biomedical Informatics Expert Panel for the National Institutes of Health's National Center, and chair of the policy board for the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center. Reed came to North Carolina in 2004 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was director of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) from 2000- 2003 and chair of the computer science department from 1996-2001.
Since 2004, Reed has focused on building multidisciplinary teams that bring together RENCI experts in high-end computing, applications, and cyberinfrastructure with scientists, educators, business leaders, and scholars in the arts, humanities and social sciences. As Vice Chancellor for IT, he has focused on integrating and improving the telecommunications, networking, applications, and computing infrastructure at UNC-Chapel Hill.
RENCI...Catalyst for Innovation
The Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) is a catalyst for innovation in science, engineering, the arts, humanities, and commerce. It fosters multidisciplinary collaborations by leveraging and applying leading edge compute, network, and data information technology resources and capabilities. RENCI is a joint institute of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Duke University, and North Carolina State University that combines the strengths of these three institutions with the social, business and research opportunities of the Research Triangle Park and the state of North Carolina.
Relevant URLs:
RENCI: www.renci.org
PCAST: http://www.ostp.gov/PCAST/pcast.html
White House press release: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/02/20060227-7.html
NCSU Center for Visualization and Analytics: http://research.csc.ncsu.edu/cva/index.htm
Contact:
Karen Green
Director of Marketing and Public Relations
Renaissance Computing Institute
kgreen@renci.org
919.843.5311
919.619.8213 (cell)
NCSU Contact:
Ken Tate
Director of Development & External Relations
NCSU Department of Computer Science
tate@csc.ncsu.edu
919.513.4292
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