Edward Seidel, an astrophysicist, will lead the National Science Foundation’s efforts to advance computer science by exploring new ways to connect data, computers, and people starting this September. He says Cyberinfrastructure, or CI — which forges these connections — is necessary for success in industry and academe.

The CI office awards competitive grants to researchers who are doing pathbreaking computer-science work. The office also oversees advances in supercomputing, high-speed networking, data storage, and software development on a national level. Mr. Seidel comes to the foundation from Louisiana State University at Baton Rouge, where he directs the Center for Computation & Technology.

Q. What are your priorities for advancing the foundation’s CI vision?

A. Developing a CI-savvy work force is perhaps the most important long-term investment that needs to be made. We face a critical shortage of computationally skilled researchers and staff to support them. Increasing the number of researchers who understand the importance of CI and how it can transform their fields is just as important as increasing budgets and deploying equipment that becomes obsolete in a few short years.

Q. Are some scientific disciplines better suited to promoting CI than others?

A. Atmospheric research, astrophysics, and fluid dynamics have been early drivers of CI development. At present, absolutely all areas of research, education, and industry are being transformed by advances in CI.

Q. How does the U.S. CI program stack up against programs in other countries?

A. The U.S. has been the leader in development and application of computing to advance science. On the other hand, CI is much broader than supercomputing systems, encompassing software, application development, networks, data, analysis, visualization, algorithms, and so on. In some of these areas, the U.S. can learn much from efforts around the world, especially in Europe and Asia.

Q. What are the greatest opportunities for international collaboration in CI?

A. We need to assemble teams with different kinds of expertise needed to attack complex problems, for example in climate, geosciences, astrophysics. You name it.

Q. What can individual universities do to support CI development?

A. Universities need to hire more faculty who use CI to advance their disciplines. Consider developing local training courses in computational science and the use of CI, and participate in national training events. —Andrea L. Foster

Categories: Computer-Science, Research