Dr. Francine Berman, “Got Data? Building a Sustainable Data Ecosystem”

Abstract:  Innovation in a digital world presupposes that the data will be there when you need it, but will it? Without sufficient data infrastructure and attention to the stewardship and preservation of digital data, data may become inaccessible or lost. This is particularly problematic for data generated by sponsored research projects where the focus is on innovation rather than infrastructure, and support for stewardship and preservation may be short-term and ad-hoc. In this presentation, Dr. Fran Berman discusses sustainability, infrastructure, and data, and explores the opportunities and challenges of creating a viable ecosystem for the data on which current and future research and innovation increasingly depend.

Biography: Dr. Francine Berman is the Edward P. Hamilton Distinguished Professor in Computer Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She is a Fellow of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). In 2009, Dr. Berman was the inaugural recipient of the ACM/IEEE-CS Ken Kennedy Award for “influential leadership in the design, development, and deployment of national-scale cyberinfrastructure.”  In 2015, Dr. Berman was nominated by President Obama and confirmed by the U.S. Senate to become a member of the National Council on the Humanities.

Dr. Berman is U.S. lead of the Research Data Alliance (RDA), a community-driven international organization created to accelerate research data sharing world-wide.  She also serves as Chair of the Anita Borg Institute Board of Trustees, as co-Chair of the NSF Advisory Committee for the Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) Directorate, and as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Sloan Foundation.

Previously, Dr. Berman served as Director of the San Diego Supercomputer Center and as Vice President for Research at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She also served as co-Chair of the National Academies Board on Research Data and Information (BRDI), as co-Chair of the US-UK Blue Ribbon Task Force for Sustainable Digital Preservation and Access, and as Chair of the Information, Computing and Communication Section (Section T) of the AAAS. For her accomplishments, leadership, and vision, Dr. Berman was recognized by the Library of Congress as a “Digital Preservation Pioneer”, as one of the top women in technology by BusinessWeek and Newsweek, and as one of the top technologists by IEEE Spectrum.