Meet some of the people behind the Hub. You can learn more about our leadership team below. To learn more about our collaborators and find out how you can get involved, visit the Collaborators page.
Steering Committee
Florence is the Executive Director and Co-Principal Investigator of the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub hosted at the Data Science Institute at Columbia University. She is founder and CEO of FDHint, LLC. She is a former IBM VP and Chief Technology Officer, Internet2 Senior VP and Chief Innovation Officer, Special Advisor for the NSF Cybersecurity Center of Excellence at Indiana University, and aerospace engineer at Grumman and NASA.
Jeannette M. Wing is the Executive Vice President for Research and Professor of Computer Science at Columbia University. She previously served as Avanessians Director of the Data Science Institute. She came to Columbia in July 2017 from Microsoft, where she served as Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Research, overseeing a global network of research labs. She is widely recognized for her intellectual leadership in computer science, particularly in trustworthy computing.
Yusuf Danisman received his Ph.D. in Mathematics at The Ohio State University and worked at the University of Oklahoma before joining CUNY. He is currently working on fractal geometry and its applications to the stock market.
Yusuf provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy Focus Area. Yusuf is also a member of the National Student Data Corps' Founding Committee.
Laura Dietz leads the lab for text retrieval, extraction, machine learning and analytics (TREMA) at the University of New Hampshire. She organizes a tutorial/workshop series on Utilizing Knowledge Graphs in Text-centric Retrieval (KG4IR) and coordinated the TREC Complex Answer Retrieval Track. She received an NSF CAREER Award and was previously a research scientist at Mannheim University, University of Massachusetts Amherst. Laura graduated from the Max Planck Institute for Computer Science.
Laura provides support for the Hub's Urban to Rural Communities Focus Area.
Carsten Eickhoff is a Professor at the University of Tübingen and also leads the Biomedical AI Lab at Brown University. Carsten studied AI and ML at the University of Edinburgh, TU Delft, and ETH Zurich and has written on automatic large-scale text processing and retrieval and information extraction from unstructured natural language resources. Carsten is involved in several deep technology startups that translate technological innovation to improved safety and quality of life for patients.
Carsten provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy and Health Focus Areas.
Forough was previously Associate Director of the Rutgers Discovery Informatics Institute (RDI2), where she led the development of the outreach and educational programs focused on big data and large-scale computing. Forough previously served as associate dean and department chair, new program development, teaching, and accreditation.
Forough provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy Focus Area. She is also a member of the National Student Data Corps' Founding Committee.
John Goodhue is the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center, a data center and consortium that serves more than 20,000 researchers, students, and educators at Boston University, Harvard, MIT, Northeastern University, the University of Massachusetts, and among others. John’s interests include infrastructure for research computing and supporting the next generation of computing professionals. John was previously in management and technology leadership positions at Cisco Systems, BBN Technologies, and several early stage startup companies.
John provides support for the Hub's Responsible Data Science Focus Area.
Co-Principal Investigators
James has authored over 450 technical papers in the areas of Semantic Web, artificial intelligence, agent-based computing and high performance processing.
Vasant represents the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub on the Big Data Innovation Hubs' National Coordination Committee. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Cognitive Science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, specializing in AI. In 2013, Honavar joined Penn State University.
Florence is the Executive Director and Co-Principal Investigator of the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub hosted at the Data Science Institute at Columbia University. She is founder and CEO of FDHint, LLC. She is a former IBM VP and Chief Technology Officer, Internet2 Senior VP and Chief Innovation Officer, Special Advisor for the NSF Cybersecurity Center of Excellence at Indiana University, and aerospace engineer at Grumman and NASA.
Andrew has published over 250 papers in many areas of AI, including natural language processing, machine learning, data mining and reinforcement learning, and his work has received over 30,000 citations.
Hub Staff
Lauren joined the Hub in June 2021. Prior to joining the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub, Lauren was the Program Manager for the Program for Economic Research (PER) in the Department of Economics. She earned her Master's Degree in the History of Art and Archaeology from the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU and has a background in communications and fine arts events management.
Emily is the Program Coordinator for the National Student Data Corps (NSDC). Prior to joining the team, Emily worked as a Customer Success Manager at an education center for learners of all ages and backgrounds. She also earned her Bachelor's Degree at Hofstra University where she studied Math, Finance, IT and Data Analytics.
Seed Fund Steering Committee
David is a fellow of the IEEE, AAAS, and SIAM, and advises the White House, most recently on the National Strategic Computing Initiative (NSCI). David is interested in the real world applications of high performance computing, including cybersecurity, massive-scale analytics, and computational genomics.
Florence is the Executive Director and Co-Principal Investigator of the Northeast Big Data Innovation Hub hosted at the Data Science Institute at Columbia University. She is founder and CEO of FDHint, LLC. She is a former IBM VP and Chief Technology Officer, Internet2 Senior VP and Chief Innovation Officer, Special Advisor for the NSF Cybersecurity Center of Excellence at Indiana University, and aerospace engineer at Grumman and NASA.
Josh is an active member of the broader digital library and digital humanities communities and maintains research and teaching interests in the history and sociology of information technology, the dynamics of public engagement with expert knowledge, and the methodological implications of new digital technologies for research.
Josh provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy and Urban to Rural Communities Focus Areas. Josh is also a member of the Hub's Advisory Board.
Chris was a founding developer of the M.I.T. General Circulation Model (MITgcm), a numerical simulation tool used for a wide range of basic science and applied studies in planetary fluid dynamics, and helped launch the Earth System Modeling Framework (ESMF), a major open standard for creating multicomponent models of Earth system processes. He co-leads the research, education and outreach committee of the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC). The MGHPCC is a multi-university enterprise in Massachusetts, dedicated to enhancing large-scale computing infrastructure in the area.
Chris provides support for the Hub's Urban to Rural Communities Focus Area. Chris is also a member of the Hub's Advisory Board.
Jill is the Associate Dean for Technology/CIO at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, School of Medicine. She was formerly the Assistant Dean for Technology at the University of Vermont and chair of the Association of American Medical Colleges Group on Information Resources and faculty director of the GIR Leadership Institute.
Dan is a Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at Lehigh University, having recently completed 10 years as chair of the CSE Department, and director of Lehigh's Data X initiative. His research examines algorithmic and systems-related questions in pattern recognition, document analysis, and computer security. He is also the Vice Chair of the Computing Research Association’s CCC Council.
Renée is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Canada’s National Academy of Science, Engineering and the Humanities. She received the US Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). Her work is focused on building practical data integration systems. Renée was formerly a University Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Northeastern University.
Advisory Board
Our Advisory Board includes regional leaders from academia, industry, non-profit organizations and government, whose insights help further the Hub’s mission and who demonstrate sustained interest in engaging with the Hub in a voluntary role. Leaders of the following Thematic and Cross-Cutting Areas are indicated below.
Jane provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy and Responsible Data Science Focus Areas.
Josh provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy and Urban to Rural Communities Focus Areas. Josh is also a member of the Hub's Seed Fund Steering Committee.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Chris provides support for the Hub's Urban to Rural Communities Focus Area. Chris is also a member of the Hub's Seed Fund Steering Committee.
Constantine provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy and Urban to Rural Communities Focus Areas.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology & Amazon Web Services
Tim provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy Focus Area.
Amen provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy and Urban to Rural Communities Focus Areas.
Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center
David provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy Focus Area.
State University of New York at Albany
Theresa provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy, Health, Responsible Data Science, and Urban to Rural Communities Focus Areas.
Chirag provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy, Health, and Urban to Rural Communities Focus Areas.
Adam provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy and Responsible Data Science Focus Areas.
Julia provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy and Responsible Data Science Focus Areas.
National Museum of Mathematics
Stephen provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy Focus Area.
University of Massachusetts Amherst
Beverly provides support for the Hub's Education + Data Literacy Focus Area.
National Student Data Corps Founding Committee
The NSDC Founding Committee has been instrumental in building this program.
NEBDHub Student Assistants
The Hub’s student leadership team is composed of undergraduate and graduate students from Columbia University, whose diverse interests and skills contribute to the facilitation of our ongoing activities and projects and the promotion of the Hub’s mission.
Shermaine is studying Art History and Political Science at Columbia University and will complete her B.A. in Spring 2025.