Dec. 4 -- The Howard Hughes Medical Institute has appointed Dr. Vijay K. Samalam as director of scientific computing and information technology at the Janelia Farm Research Campus.

Samalam will be responsible for all local information technology, including the design, implementation, and support of the scientific computing infrastructure. Samalam will report to Cheryl A. Moore, chief operating officer at Janelia Farm.

"We are living in a golden age in biomedical research where managing and making sense of the sheer explosion of data being produced is going to require all the IT and computing tools one can muster."

"Vijay's significant expertise in running a complex IT environment in support of science and his excitement for hands-on, small group research make him an ideal fit for Janelia," said Moore. "His presence has already impacted the way we think about supporting science here; we've very pleased that he's joined us." 

"I am honored to be here at Janelia where scientists are engaged in cutting edge research in neuroscience and the tools to support it," said Samalam. "We are living in a golden age in biomedical research where managing and making sense of the sheer explosion of data being produced is going to require all the IT and computing tools one can muster. I am excited to be a part of this process."

At Janelia Farm, which is located in Ashburn, Va., HHMI has created a setting where small research groups can explore fundamental biomedical questions in a highly collaborative, interdisciplinary culture. Approximately 230 resident and 100 visiting scientists will work toward two main goals: Identifying the general principles that govern how information is processed by neuronal circuits; and developing imaging technologies and computational methods for image analysis.

Samalam comes to Janelia Farm from the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), where he served as executive director and reported to the center's director, Dr. Francine Berman. At the SDSC, Samalam was responsible for all day-to-day operations of the center, which provides high performance computing services and support for scientists nationwide. Samalam was also director of the technology and research development division at the SDSC.

Prior to joining the SDSC, Samalam was vice president for architecture and chief technology officer for Lucent Technologies' core switching division, where he oversaw the development of the company's next generation optical network. He also worked for 16 years at GTE Laboratories, where he was a project leader and staff scientist. AT GTE, his research involved broadband switching, asynchronous transfer mode and internet protocol services.

In 1997, Samalam was awarded the IEEE Fred W. Ellersick Prize for the most outstanding paper published in the journal IEEE Communications.

Before entering the data communications industry, Samalam conducted research in solid state physics and taught in the physics department at the University of Florida. He has a Ph.D. in physics from the State University of New York at Stonybrook.

Samalam succeeds Marshall R. Peterson, who served as director of information technology, playing a key role in building the hardware and software infrastructure at Janelia Farm. Peterson left Janelia Farm to become chief technology officer at the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON).

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Source: Howard Hughes Medical Institute