Connectionists: Director position for the Institute of CyberScience, Pennsylvania State University

[Lee Giles]

Penn State is seeking a dynamic, innovative scholar to lead the Institute for CyberScience (ICS), a critically important cross-university, interdisciplinary, research organization. The successful candidate will be an accomplished researcher with the vision and leadership skills to direct the ICS and its advanced computing resources. The Institute for CyberScience (ics.psu.edu) is one of Penn State’s five university-wide research institutes that are centrally positioned within the Office of the Vice President for Research to accelerate discovery and advance interdisciplinary, collaborative team science. The ICS works across all colleges at the University to cultivate a community of scholars engaged in interdisciplinary computation- and data-enabled research and learning. The ICS has already coordinated over 20 faculty co-hires across six different colleges, and has over 120 faculty associates in a broad range of substantive fields. The ICS figures prominently in Penn State’s strategic plan (http://strategicplan.psu.edu). To this end, the director will lead the ongoing institutional cluster-hire initiative in cyberscience, direct Penn State’s Advanced Cyber Infrastructure (ICS-ACI), and set priorities for the ICS (http://ics.psu.edu/who-we-are/mission/). Applicants should possess strong interpersonal skills and the ability to move with ease across disciplinary boundaries to develop new initiatives among faculty with diverse areas of expertise.  The Director will report to the Vice President for Research and is expected to work collaboratively with the directors of Penn State’s other major research institutes—the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences, the Materials Research Institute, the Penn State Institutes of Energy and the Environment, and the Social Science Research Institute—and also with the Director of the Applied Research Laboratory and the deans of Penn State’s 12 colleges. The successful applicant is expected to develop and maintain a research program leading to national and international recognition relevant to computation- and data-enabled research and to participate in the teaching mission of the academic unit in which the candidate is appointed. The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) is a public research university with annual research expenditures exceeding $800M for the past six years. As Pennsylvania’s land-grant institution, it serves over 97,000 students at 24 campuses. Penn State is one of the leading research universities in the country with a long-standing tradition of proven success in interdisciplinary research. The 2015 National Science Foundation (NSF) Higher Education Research and Development (HERD) Survey ranked Penn State 12th among the nation’s public universities for total R&D expenditures. To apply, please submit a cover letter, curriculum vita, and the names and contact information of at least three references.  Apply online at https://psu.jobs/job/63752  Review of applications will begin on May 31, 2016, and will continue until the position is filled.