News Release

Renaissance Computing Institute director is named
to presidential council concerning science, technology

CHAPEL HILL – Dr. Daniel A. Reed, director of the Renaissance Computing Institute and vice chancellor for information technology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will be appointed to the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), the White House announced this week.

Reed, also Chancellor’s eminent professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, had been a member of the President’s Information Technology Advisory Committee (PITAC), a group whose federal charter expired last June. In October, President George W. Bush announced that the functions of PITAC – to advise the president on IT research and development – would be folded into PCAST.

The new council advises the president on technology, scientific research priorities and math and science education. Its members are national leaders in business, research and education, including Michael Dell, founder of Dell Inc.; Gordon Moore, Intel Corp. co-founder; and Dr. Charles Vest, Massachusetts Institute of Technology president emeritus.

Reed was one of 14 appointees announced by the White House earlier this week.

"The expansion of PCAST shows the federal government recognizes that IT is a pervasive element in science and education and that a holistic approach to these issues is necessary," said Reed. "I am honored to be named to this prestigious council, and I look at it as a chance to help our country realize its boldest dreams."

Reed was a member of PITAC and chairman of its computational science subcommittee for two years. He is the current chairman of the board of directors of the Computing Research Association, a member of the National Archives and Records Administration advisory committee, a member of the Biomedical Informatics Expert Panel for the National Institutes of Health’s National Center and chairman of the policy board for the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center.

Reed came to North Carolina in 2004 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he directed the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) from 2000-2003 and chaired the computer science department from 1996-2001.

Since 2004, Reed has focused on building multidisciplinary teams that bring together Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI) experts in high-end computing, applications and cyberinfrastructure with scientists, educators, business leaders and scholars in the arts, humanities and social sciences. As vice chancellor for IT, he has focused on integrating and improving the telecommunications, networking, applications and computing infrastructure at UNC-Chapel Hill.

RENCI is a joint institute of UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University and N.C. State University. More information on RENCI is available at www.renci.org.

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Related links:
PCAST: http://www.ostp.gov/PCAST/pcast.html
White House press release: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/02/20060227-7.html

Photo URL: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/reed_dan.jpg

Renaissance Computing Institute contact: Karen Green, (919) 445-9648 or kgreen@renci.org