Dr. George O. Strawn

Affiliation

Federal Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD)
National Coordination Office (NCO)
Arlington, VA

Presentation

Keynote: “Big Data in Context”

Abstract

Big Data is a prime focus today in IT R&D and IT use cases. And bioinformatics is one of the leading use cases that is propelling big data R&D. In this talk, I’ll briefly review the role of the “entrepreneurial state” in leading IT R&D, describe the current state of interagency activity in big data R&D, and, as a bioinformatics outsider, comment on several important bioinformatics use cases.

Biography

George O. Strawn

Dr. George O. Strawn is the Director of the National Coordination Office (NCO) for the Federal government’s multiagency Networking and Information Technology Research and Development (NITRD) Program. He also serves as the Co-Chair of the NITRD Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council. The NCO reports to the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) within the Executive Office of the President.

Dr. Strawn is on assignment to the NCO from the National Science Foundation (NSF), where he most recently served as Chief Information Officer (CIO. Prior to his appointment as NSF CIO, Dr. Strawn served as the executive officer of the NSF Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) and as Acting Assistant Director for CISE. Previously, Dr. Strawn had served as the Director of the CISE Division of Advanced Networking Infrastructure and Research, where he led NSF’s efforts in the Presidential Next Generation Internet Initiative.

Prior to coming to NSF, Dr. Strawn was a Computer Science faculty member at Iowa State University (ISU) for a number of years. He also served there as Director of the ISU Computation Center and Chair of the ISU Computer Science Department.

Dr. Strawn received his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Iowa State University and his BA Magna Cum Laude in Mathematics and Physics from Cornell College. He is a Fellow of the American Association to the Advancement of Science.