Lifka

David Lifka, director of the Cornell Center for Advanced Computing (CAC) and adjunct associate professor of computing and information science, has taken on an additional role as director of research computing for Weill Cornell Medical College.

Lifka, an expert in high-performance computing, will help expand information technology support for researchers at Weill, while making it more affordable. He will split his time between Ithaca and New York City, spending an average of one week a month in New York. "I am hopeful that my efforts will lead to many new opportunities for meaningful collaborations and shared resources between the two campuses," Lifka said.

"We view this as a very positive development for both campuses and are appreciative that Dave is willing and eager to take on this additional assignment, to the benefit of Cornell," said Robert Buhrman, senior vice provost for research and the John Edson Sweet Professor of Engineering.

Lifka will begin by meeting with faculty at Weill Cornell to understand their research computing requirements. "I believe there will be opportunities for Weill researchers to leverage current and future resources in Ithaca but due to the nature and sensitivity of a lot of the work done at the medical school, there will be both technical and security reasons for dedicated infrastructure at the New York campus," he said.

Biomedical research is becoming more data-intensive, explained Curtis Cole, associate professor of clinical medicine and public health and co-director of the bioinformatics core in the clinical and transactional science center at Weill. Gene sequencers turn out a terabyte of data a day; new digital pathology images are a gigabyte per slide and the hospital in New York can easily produce 1,000 slides a day. Research data also may require special security, either because it deals with patient records or just because it may be expensive to acquire.

"Using systems stuffed under a desk or not managed professionally is a problem," Cole said. "We would like scientists to take better care of their data but they will not use our facilities if we only offer an expensive solution." Lifka has made CAC's services to the Ithaca campus highly affordable, compared with what can be purchased from outside vendors, Cole pointed out. Another part of Lifka's job, he added, will be to educate scientists in the use of IT and, significantly, to remind them to include IT costs in their grant proposals.

Lifka also will help design the server room in Weill Cornell's forthcoming state-of-the-art Medical Research Building on East 69th Street, scheduled to be dedicated in December 2011.

"Even if we had someone as good as Dave full time here, the fact that this is a joint position is of value to us because it helps us connect to the main campus," Cole said. "There are economies of scale and opportunities for collaboration when you're part of the larger university."