ACADEMIA

The Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) has hired Karen Green as director of marketing and public relations at the multi-institutional research facility located in Chapel Hill, NC. Green, currently the associate director in charge of public affairs at NCSA, joins the RENCI team November 30. She will lead all internal and external marketing and communications efforts at the institute. "As RENCI grows and establishes partnerships and multidisciplinary projects across the country and around the world, it is crucial that we get our message out to research scientists, the state and national business sector, funding agencies, and the public," said RENCI Director Daniel A. Reed "I’m delighted that Karen is joining us. An experienced communications professional with knowledge of high-performance computing , advanced applications, and collaborative research organizations is exactly what we need." Green has been at NCSA since 1997, first as public information officer and since 2003 as head of the public affairs division. She worked under Reed during his tenure as NCSA director from 2000 to 2003 and has been a newspaper journalist, a freelance writer, editor and media relations consultant, and a media relations and publications specialist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She comes to RENCI as the institute continues to grow, mature and connect the potent North Carolina research and business sectors to solve some of society's most challenging problems. Areas of emphasis in the coming year include: • Hurricane prediction/disaster planning and response. RENCI is a partner in the SURA Coastal Ocean Observing and Prediction (SCOOP) program. SCOOP aims to develop an integrated cyberinfrastructure that will enable coordinated observation and prediction of the impacts of hurricanes and related issues, including pathogen dispersal, climate change, and the impact of hurricanes on coastal communities. • Bioinformatics/genetics. RENCI is part of the Carolina Center for Exploratory Genetic Analysis (CCEGA), a project funded by the National Institutes of Health that will establish an interdisciplinary infrastructure to identify the complex genetic traits underlying human diseases. The institute also has developed the North Carolina BioPortal, a shared, extensible infrastructure that gives biologists access to over 100 computational tools, standard biological data, and distributed resources. RENCI researchers are leveraging the BioPortal infrastructure to create a Biological and Biomedical Science Gateway for users of the National Science Foundation's TeraGrid. • Environmental modeling. RENCI participates in the Linked Environments for Atmospheric Discovery (LEAD) project, which is creating interconnected, heterogeneous cyberenvironments for mesoscale atmospheric research, including adaptive real-time modeling of severe storms. The institute focuses on performance monitoring and adaptation and fault-tolerance performability and recovery for the LEAD infrastructure. Over the next few months, RENCI will grow to more than 100 professional staff and move into a 12,000 square-foot facility equipped with high-resolution display walls, Access Grid nodes, high performance networks, data storage facilities, and other collaboration tools. While RENCI designs and constructs its own building, the facility will mean a higher profile for the institute and will provide the Research Triangle business sector with better access to high-end technology and collaboration tools, according to Reed. 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.