Education networking veteran to 'harness NLR's unique capabilities' to grow opportunities for NLR members, advance national competitiveness:

National LambdaRail (NLR), the cutting-edge network for advanced research and innovation owned by the U.S. research and education community, announces the appointment of education networking veteran Kurt Snodgrass as the Chairman of its Board of Directors.

Snodgrass is the Vice Chancellor for Information Technology and Telecommunications with the Oklahoma State Regents. He is also the Chief Operating Officer for OneNet, Oklahoma's telecommunications network for education and government and a longtime member of NLR.

For the past several years Snodgrass has served as Oklahoma's representative on NLR's Board. In his tenure on the NLR Board, he has also chaired the audit and organizational committees as well as being a member of the executive committee.

Snodgrass replaces Erv Blythe, who is Vice President for Information Technology for Virginia Tech. Blythe has stepped down from the NLR Board to pursue a new strategic initiative for the university related to the convergence of technologies and protocols utilized for cyber and physical security. Jeff Crowder, Director, Strategic Information Technology Initiatives, now represents NLR member Virginia Tech Foundation on the NLR Board.

In his capacity with the Oklahoma State Regents, Snodgrass maintains oversight of the operations and budgets of the agency's Information Technology divisions at the State Regents as well as the Oklahoma Guaranteed Student Loan Program.

"I am honored to be selected by my peers to chair this progressive organization and have the opportunity to help shape its short- and long-term future," said Snodgrass. "Building on NLR's impressive record as a change agent in research and telecommunications, I look forward to working with the NLR Board, staff and member organizations to harness NLR's unique capabilities to support the adoption of new technologies, applications and public/private partnerships that will grow opportunities for NLR members and move our nation to the forefront in network technologies and telecommunications."

"NLR has proven to be tremendously effective, dramatically advancing national, high-performance research networking, contributing to the vitality of regional optical networks and strengthening regional and international collaboration within the research and education community," according to Blythe. "With his deep roots in both regional networks and information technology, Kurt Snodgrass is very well positioned to help guide NLR as it embarks on its next chapters as the network for advanced research and innovation."