This month, Melissa Cragin joins the Office of Information Technology (OIT) as the Associate Vice President of Research Computing, which includes oversight of the Center for Research Computing (CRC). She is enthusiastic about her new role at Rice, “To be part of the university means contributing to its mission, and it is very special to be part of a community working to address local, national, and global grand challenges.”
With President DesRoches’ plan for expansion of research over the next few years, this point in time is a great opportunity. “This university is amazing, and the CRC is poised for its role to contribute to the growth plan, and help Rice become an even greater powerhouse,” said Cragin. She welcomes the challenges for increasing access to research computing. “Being part of the CRC team working to meet these goals means helping to design solutions that are not only about computing, but also data infrastructure, policies and regulations, and changing practices among researchers, who are often creating or adopting new methods and modalities. All of these facets need to be considered in serving Rice research, teaching, and learning.”
Cragin’s immediate past position was the Chief Strategist for Data Initiatives in the Research Data Services division at the San Diego Supercomputer Center, University of California San Diego where she was involved in projects to improve data access and usage and to develop the national data infrastructure ecosystem and related policies. Her background also includes serving as the Executive Director of the Midwest Big Data Hub, based at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as well as working at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Cragin earned a Ph.D. in information science from the iSchool at Illinois (UIUC) and an MLIS degree from Rutgers University.