Max Davis-Johnson, associate vice president and chief information officer, invites the campus community to attend public forums followed by question/answer sessions for two candidates vying for director of research computing at Boise State.
Each candidate will deliver a 15-minute presentation based on the following question: “How would you engage the campus community to grow research and Research Computing for Boise State?” An open session will follow.
Candidates will present on the following dates:
Scotty Strachan, 2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 29, Liberal Arts Building Rm. 106 (and Zoom)
Scotty Strachan is director of cyberinfrastructure at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he works to accelerate research activity through use of specialized networking, computing, and data management.
He is also an environmental scientist with expertise in mountain systems, ecohydrology, palaeoclimate, dendrochronology, and semi-arid ecosystems. In this capacity, Strachan is director of the Nevada Climate-ecohydrology Assessment Network, a set of long-term mountain gradient observations sites in the Great Basin, North America. This network remains a partnership between the University of Nevada, Reno, the Desert Research Institute, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Ira Burton, 2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 3, Liberal Arts Building Rm. 106 (and Zoom)
Burton is a maker, innovator, designer, and leader with 25 years of experience creating high-performance measurement equipment. As director of strategic engineering at Micron, his focus is collaboration; finding partnerships delivering timely impact, positive return on investment, and disruptive innovation. As a Bronco alum (MS in Computer Science), he appreciated invitations to share industry perspectives with the CS Professionals Hatchery and the Pacific Northwest LSAMP Conference. Burton’s drive is personal and professional development, currently growing as a mentor while juggling eight mentees. He has a longstanding desire to see Boise State reach the next level in research impact. And, he is pretty fond of computers.
Elizabeth Leake, 2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 7, Virtual Forum (Zoom)
Leake is a high-performance computing (HPC) consultant, correspondent, and advocate who serves the global HPC and data science industries. In 2012, she founded STEM-Trek, a global, grassroots nonprofit organization that supports scholarly travel and workforce development opportunities for HPC-curious science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) scholars from underserved regions, and underrepresented groups.
As a program director, Leake has mentored hundreds of early-career professionals who are breaking cultural barriers in an effort to accelerate scientific and engineering discoveries. Her multinational programs have specific themes that resonate with global stakeholders, such as food security data science, blockchain for social good, cybersecurity/risk mitigation, and more. Her efforts drew recognition when STEM-Trek received the 2016 and 2017 HPCwire Editors’ Choice and 2020 Readers’ Choice Awards for Workforce Diversity and Inclusion Leadership.
Register for Zoom Access
Please email CIO@boisestate.edu if you wish to attend one or more of these sessions via Zoom.