Dear PI community,

As the Office of Research Computing and Data (ORCD) continues on our mission to build world-class research computing services, we are excited to share with you the appointment of our inaugural executive director Dr. James Cuff.

James will be responsible for organizing services and support within ORCD, reporting to Prof. Peter Fisher, head of ORCD, and Mark Silis, VP of IS&T.  His true passion and experience reside in providing frictionless access to advanced research computing services while carefully managing budgets and teams to get the job done and delivered on time.

James joins us with over two decades of experience in incrementally complex research computing environments.  Over eleven years as assistant dean and distinguished engineer, James and his team designed and built Harvard University’s research computing organization from the ground up. James was one of the founding members of the original MGHPCC design and built team, a facility we at MIT continue to invest in to support our most advanced, intensely computational activities.  More recently, James served as an independent consultant working with many technical startup companies covering many disparate aspects of advanced high performance and scientific computing.

In the coming week, James and I, will begin regular office hours to meet with PIs interested in research computing and ORCD, as well as visiting school councils and labs.  You can reach James at jcuff@mit.edu.

Please join us in welcoming James to MIT – having him as part of ORCD represents a real coup for ORCD and MIT.

Best,

Peter Fisher – Head, ORCD and Thomas A. Frank (1977) Professor of Physics.

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